The Butterfly Effect
by We're All M-M-Mad Here
Summary: When Sirius Black was heading to his first year at Hogwarts, he was the first out of his family to run through the barrier, but how much would the wizarding world have change if he wasn't? How much can one seemingly insignificant action change the wizarding world? Well, we're about to find out...and it all started with a muggle losing his keys...
1. Insignificant Little Details

Prologue

_Insignificant Little Details_

There is a phenomenon where even the most minute change in the world can have large effects everywhere else. This is what we call the butterfly effect. Everyone, even witches and wizards, don't put much stock in it. Perhaps this is because we can never know for sure what each action and word and choice would have turned out like. Sure we can wonder, we can think 'what if?' but we will never know, not really.

Many people and creatures in the wizarding world, Centaurs being just one example, believe in fate instead, believed that everything has been mapped out in the stars for thousands of years.

The story of the friendship of the marauders, the infamous bond between Sirius Black and James Potter, the star crossed love of James and Lily Evans. All these were thought to have been decided by fate long before they happened. Sirius and James were to meet on the train, automatically feel that click between them and then spark a rivalry with Severus Snape and Lily Evans.

But what if one thing were to change?

In 1971, when the eldest Black brother was to start Hogwarts, Sirius and the rest of the Black family were going through Kings Cross Station. All of the family were looking forward to avoid interacting with the filth that was muggles, while Sirius looked around in awe, never been allowed to see muggles before.

The first time around, Sirius was the first to go through the barrier between platform nine and ten, eager to avoid his relatives. But what if he wasn't? What if he was the last? What could this seemingly inconsequential action change in the future?

Well, we're about to find out…and it all started with a muggle losing his keys.

Mr and Mrs Watkins were proud to say that their marriage was working out perfectly fine, thank you very much. They were in love and happy and there was food on the table and right now, surely that was all that mattered.

Mrs Watkins worked at a hospital not far from town, but was currently on pregnancy leave. She was a tall woman with dark skin and eyes, although she did have very pale blonde hair. Mr Watkins was a skinny and gangly man, with a rather large nose.

The Watkins had been together since they were fifteen, high school sweet hearts, married at nineteen and now, at twenty, Mrs Watkins was on her way to having her first child. Both their parents believe that they got together much too young and that it would never work out, they were just waiting for the day for them to show up on the doorstep admitting defeat, but Mr and Mrs Watkins were determined for that not to happen.

Despite being a happy, kind hearted couple, at the moment the Watkins were having money troubles. Mrs Watkins was thinking about quitting her job as a nurse once the baby was born and Mr Watkins was currently in between jobs. They were already cutting down to bare necessities so they didn't have much of an idea of how they were going to deal with a baby on top of that.

On September 1st, a bright, sunny Tuesday, our story starts, there was nothing about the sunny street outside to suggest that Mr Watkins was about to change the whole future of what was thought to be fated in the wizarding world. Mr Watkins frowned as he stood in front of the mirror, holding up a green tie and then a stripy blue one, wondering which one would make someone want to hire him. Mrs Watkins on the other hand, was sitting at the table, munching on a pickle dipped in peanut butter…it was painfully obvious that her cravings were in full swing.

At half past seven, Mr Watkins was rushing about the house in a panic, looking on every surface and in every drawer wondering where his keys could possibly be, he even checked his underwear drawer, but he could see hind nor hair of them, although he did find the watch he lost a few months prior.

"Love, have you seen my keys?" Mr Watkins called absently, as he lay down on the floor to check under the settee.

There was a muffled sound of Mrs Watkins' reply from the kitchen, which must have been a negative as Mr Watkins let out a groan as he stood up, looking about the living room as though a flashing light would appear to direct him to his keys.

Mr Watkins couldn't understand what he could have possibly done with them. He knew he had them yesterday when he drove to the grocery store, Mrs Watkins having sent him on a food run to satiate one of her insane cravings, but after that…nothing. Mr Watkins was incredibly clumsy and so often misplaced things, that was perhaps why he lost his previous job as a secretary, he could never keep the boss' time table in order.

He reached a hand under each of the cushions on the settee, but yet again found no keys, although he did find a hair clip, a biscuit, two old socks and over four pounds in change, which he pocketed before straightening up with a sigh. He scrubbed a hand over his weary face. This was the first job interview he had had in weeks, he couldn't afford to miss it because he misplaced his keys.

"Looking for these?" came a voice from behind him, Mrs Watkins' voice having a slight Spanish lilt.

He turned to see his, very pregnant, wife standing in the doorway, one hand on her swelled stomach and the other stretched in front of her with what he instantly recognised as his keys hooked on her ring finger.

Mr Watkins sighed again, but this time it was in relief. A tired smile appeared on his young face and he ran a hair through his dark hair.

"You," he said, moving forward to kiss his wife, "are amazing."

"I know," Mrs Watkins replied, a small smirk on her lips and her dark eyes filled with mirth. "Dios mio, what would you do without me?"

"Crash and burn, love," Mr Watkins smiled, chuckling slightly.

"And don't you forget it," said Mrs Watkins with a rather smug expression, giving her husband another kiss.

Just five minutes later, Mr Watkins picked up the stack of his credentials, pecked Mrs Watkins on the cheek, and rubbed her swelled belly, whispering goodbye to his unborn child. "I love you," called Mr Watkins as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of the drive.

Mr Watkins sat in the usual morning traffic jam, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he looked about the road with a frown. "Come on," he muttered in annoyance as the traffic moved forward just a few feet. He couldn't afford to lose this job opportunity, he was not about to ask his parents for money, it was bad enough that he had to listen to their condescending words when they looked at the cheap furniture in his house.

He puffed out a breathe and briefly glanced at the car beside his before looking forward again. For a second, Mr Watkins didn't realise what he had seen, then he jerked his head back to the car to look again. In the window of the car beside his, two wide amber eyes were blinking at him, the eyes of a barn owl, perched in a copper cage. He blinked in surprise and the owl blinked back. What person actually had an owl for a pet? He wondered, but before he could muse on the thought much longer, the traffic finally moved and he lost sight of the car.

When Mr Watkins finally got to his destination, Kings Cross Station, he quickly made his way down the platforms, not noticing that the family with the amber eyed owl had turned up at the same place.

He shifted the pile of credentials to hold them in his left hand as he pulled a ticket from his suit pocket with his right. He was looking for Platform eleven. Mr Watkins sighed when he noticed that he was only at platform four and had just ten minutes to catch his train.

He picked up his pace so that he was in a brisk walk and weaved his way through the station. Mr Watkins was so distracted by the thought of being late that he noticed an eleven year old boy cross his path a second too late and he crashed into him. Mr Watkins' credentials fell to the floor and there was a loud, indignant screech as the boys cage, containing a cream barn owl with speckles on its chest and beady black eyes, crashed to the ground too.

Mr Watkins looked at the boy in surprise as he grabbed his cage and then began to help Mr Watkins gather up his papers. The boy had dark hair and aristocratic features, despite his young age, but that wasn't what surprised the man, it was that not only did the boy have an owl, but he had a rather large trunk too and he was dressed in strange, black robes. Now that Mr Watkins thought about it, there were quite a few strange people on the platform today, almost all of them having a trunk just like the boy's.

It took Mr Watkins a moment to realise that the boy was talking.

"-Wasn't looking where I was going," he was saying sheepishly, as he handed Mr Watkins the last of the papers from the floor and straightened up. The boy then looked over his shoulder nervously, as though scared someone would see him.

Mr Watkins stared at him for a moment before coming out of his stupor, shaking his head quickly, and straightening up also.

"No, no, no, don't even mention it, it was entirely my fault, I was running late, you see," he said kindly, before he looked at his wristwatch and saw that he only had two minutes left to catch the train. "I must dash, I'm sorry again" Mr Watkins said, before quickly hurrying away, not noticing that the strange boy was staring after him in unconcealed awe, having just had his first interaction with a muggle.

**Author's Note: This idea just hit me, so I would really like to know whether you think this story is worth continuing. It contains a Slytherin Sirius, Remus/Lily and Sirius/James. **

**Review whether you think I should continue!**


	2. Magic in Cokework

Chapter One

_Magic in Cokeworth_

Over ten years had passed since the Evans Family had moved to Cokeworth, but Juniper Avenue had hardly changed at all. The gardens still had bright green lawns and white picket fences and there was still a brass number fourteen on the Evans' front door. Only the Photographs around the house really showed how much time had passed. Now there were pictures of Petunia's life as she grew into the tall, lanky fourteen year old she was now, and there were pictures of ten year old Lily Evans as she too went through her childhood.

The youngest member of the family was currently asleep in her bedroom, but not for long. Her parents and sister were awake and it was Petunia's shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Lily, up! Get up! Now!"

Lily woke with a start, jerking into an upright position. Looking towards the doorway, Lily saw that Petunia was standing there, wearing a mustard colour pleated skirt with a matching blazer over a white blouse and white knee highs on her skinny legs.

"Mummy says you have to come down for breakfast," Petunia said self-importantly, before she sniffed and walked out of the door, closing it behind her.

Lily looked at the closed door for a moment, before she lay back down to return to sleep. The youngest Evans had always loved her sleep, that was until it was time to go to bed at night. She didn't get much more shut eye though, as after only a few minutes her door opened again, only this time it was her mum.

"Come on! It's a beautiful day!" her mum chirped as she strode across the room and yanked open the curtains.

Lily groaned as the sunlight hit her face. Lily tried to bury herself further into her duvet, her Raggedy Ann doll falling from her bed as she did, while slowly cracking her eyes open to glare at her mum.

"Mum," Lily whined.

"Lily," her mum mocked in the same whining voice, it was clear where Lily got her cheeky streak from. "Come on, it's time for breakfast"

Rather reluctantly, Lily got out of the warmth of her bed and pulled off her pink baby-doll pyjamas, which had matching bloomers, and instead pulled on a checked blue pinafore with a darker blue turtleneck underneath and red tights.

Now that she was dressed, Lily went downstairs, through the living room, and into the kitchen. The rest of the family was already in there. Her dad was sitting at the head of the table reading The Sun, the front page of which was declaring that the docks strike had now been settled, while her mum was currently getting some slices from the wonderbread packet to toast for Petunia, who was sitting at the table and leafing through a copy of teen magazine that had Susan Pey on the front.

Lily sat down after grabbing a bowl from the cupboard and poured in some Apple Jacks cereal.

"Good morning, flower," her dad said in a way of a morning greeting.

Her dad always greeted her that way as well as Petunia seeing as he and their mum decided to name their daughters after plants. Petunia looked a lot like their dad, tall and lanky with wispy blonde hair, although she did have their mum's dull blue eyes. Lily on the other hand looked nothing like her elder sister. Only ten years old and you could already she was going to develop their mother's tall and leggy form. Lily was basically identical to their mum, with the same pale skin and vibrant wavy red hair, although she did have their dad's emerald green eyes.

"Morning, dad," Lily said while grabbing some strawberry Quick.

"These gas shortages are getting ridiculous, just look at this pricing," her dad scoffed, showing the paper to her mum and shaking his head. "Ridiculous" he said again.

"Well, there's no use complaining about it, there's nothing we can do," her mum placated, sitting down in the last seat at the table and handing Petunia her toast.

Lily looked at her dad curiously as she took another bite of cereal. She couldn't understand why her dad read the paper every day when all it ever did was make him complain. It was odd since her dad was usually so laid back, except of course when it came to the newspaper…well, that and boys.

After breakfast Petunia and Lily went into the living room to watch Saturday morning cartoons as they always did, laughing at the Flintstones and Popeye, while their mum and dad went to do whatever it was parents did when they were on their own. Lily thought maybe they were doing the washing up or something, that seemed the sort of thing adults get up to.

They were halfway through an episode of Loony Tunes, munching on the fudgsicles that Petunia grabbed from the freezer for them, when their mum came into the room, not looking all that impressed with the way the two of them were just sitting and looking at the TV.

"It's such a lovely day," she said, "Petunia, why don't you take Lily down to the park to play?"

"But mum, you know Lily always does that- that – weird stuff when we play," Petunia protested.

Lily knew she was talking about the strange things she could make happen. She was not sure how she did it, but she always managed things other people couldn't. Like jumping from the second floor window and landing perfectly fine, giving her mum and dad a heart attack mind you, or when a mean boy put chiclet flavour coated gum in her hair and her mum had to cut it all off, only for it all to grow back the very next day.

"It's not weird," Lily protested indignantly, tearing her gaze away from the TV to glare at her elder sister.

Lily loved her sister and would always include her in her games and secrets, but now and again Lily would know that if it weren't for their relation to each other they would have nothing in common.

"Yes it is, no one else does that," Petunia replied matter-of-factly.

"Well, Lily promises not to do anything like that, don't you Lily?" her mother said, turning to Lily with a warning look on her face.

"Yes, mum," Lily sighed, knowing it wouldn't be nearly as much fun to play with that promise in place.

This seemed to be enough for Petunia and once the two of them had put on their shoes, they walked down the street, running and laughing and playing tag as they did. There was a bright smile on Lily's face as Petunia let out a laugh as Lily just narrowly missed catching her. It was always nice to see this side of her sister, as it was only every so often with Lily that it came out as she was always trying to act so grown up. Lily couldn't imagine why because being an adult seemed so terribly boring to her.

It didn't take long to get to the playground, which was practically deserted as there wasn't many children in Cokeworth, seeing as most of the houses were reserved for the people who worked at the factory nearby, the single, huge chimney of which dominated the skyline.

Lily and Petunia went to the two swings as soon as they got to the park, as it was their favourite thing to play on. Even though she would love to have some more children to play with, Lily knew that if it was a choice between another child and her sister, Petunia would beat everyone out every time. Sisters were more important than friends after all.

Lily and Petunia both swung backwards and forwards, unaware that there was someone watching them as they did so. Lily swung higher than her sister and Lily's face split apart in a grin as an idea formed in her brain, forgetting the promise she made to her mum as she did so.

Petunia, however, seemed to cotton on to what Lily was about to do and shrieked, "Lily, don't do it!"

But Lily had already let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown as she had many times before, launched herself skywards with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared, like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.

"Mummy told you not to!"

Petunia had stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her shoes on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on her hips.

"But I'm fine," Lily said through giggles. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do"

Petunia glanced around, but the playground was still deserted apart from themselves. Lily picked up a fallen flower from a nearby bush. Petunia seemed torn between curiosity and disapproval, but the former of which won out, as it often did in the Evans family, and Petunia advanced. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to her to have a clear view, then held out her palm. She felt something warm within her veins and the flower sat there, opening and closing its petals.

"No, stop it!" shrieked Petunia.

"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.

"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added and Lily could hear the longing in her voice.

Lily frowned in sympathy, knowing that even though she would never admit it, Petunia would love to do what she did. She opened her mouth to try and explain it, hoping that if she did perhaps Petunia could learn to do it too, but before she could get a word out an unknown voice cut across her.

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

A boy had jumped out from behind the bush next to them. He looked about Lily's age, sallow, small and stringy, with overlong black hair and mismatched clothes: too short jeans, a shabby overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man and a smock-like shirt. Petunia shrieked and ran backwards towards the swings, but Lily, although startled, remained where she was, too curious to be scared of this boy. The boy's sallow cheeks got a flush of colour as he looked at Lily, it seemed as though he regretted jumping out on them.

"What's obvious?" Lily asked.

The boy had an air of nervous excitement. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, "I know what you are"

Lily's expression pinched in confusion.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You're….You're a witch," whispered the boy.

Lily bristled at the insult and an affronted expression made its way onto her face. Lily glared at the boy with dislike. Boys were always mean.

"_That's_ not a very nice thing to say to somebody," Lily snapped. She turned, nose in the air, and marched off towards Petunia.

"No!" the boy said, quickly running after her, his cheeks highly coloured.

The two sisters considered him, united in disapproval, each of them holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag.

"You _are_," said the boy. "You_ are_ a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard"

Petunia's laugh was like cold water and Lily glanced up at her.

"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who _you_ are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily.

Lily had heard of Spinner's End. It was the poorer side of Cokeworth; the river stinking and dirty and the houses small and blackened from the smoke from the factory. It was not a good area at all, in fact her mum and dad refused to let the girls go down there by themselves in case something should happen to them.

"Why have you been spying on us?" Petunia asked the boy, Snape.

"Haven't been spying," said Snape, looking uncomfortable and dirty-haired in the bright sunlight. "Wouldn't spy on _you_, anyway," he added spitefully, "_you're_ a muggle"

Lily didn't know what that word was, but by the tone she could tell it was an insult. Petunia clearly could too as she said shrilly, "Lily, come on, we're leaving!"

Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Snape as they left for daring to insult her sister. Lily could feel his gaze on her back as she and Petunia marched through the playground gate.

"The nerve of him!" Petunia shrieked when they were a small distance away. "Not only has he been spying on us-"

"Me, you mean," Lily corrected and Petunia shot her a stern glance that meant she clearly didn't think there was a difference.

"-Spying on us, he has the nerve to jump out and insult us!" she finished, shaking her head and scowling.

"He wasn't very nice at all," Lily agreed with a nod, a frown pinching between her brows.

When they got back home, not another word was spoken about the odd Snape boy, and they had a perfectly normal dinner, listening to gossip their mum had heard from her friend Doris from next door. Then they sat and watched the Andy Griffith show with their parents in the living room, their dad now and again adjusting the rabbit ears antenna to get a clearer picture.

Petunia went to go and spend the evening at Yvonne's house down the road after that. Lily didn't like Yvonne, even though she had been Petunia's best friend for as long as she could remember. Yvonne had decided that Lily was too childish to play with her, and Petunia almost always agreed with what she said, so the younger Evans sister retired to her room early.

Lily sat on her bed, reading one of her Nancy Drew Mystery books, her favourite series ever. However, she had been on the same page for ten minutes now and hadn't read a word of it. Her mind kept going back to the Snape boy. She began to wonder at what he said. What if he was right? What if she was a witch? Magic would certainly explain all the things she could do, and he didn't sound like he was insulting her when he said she was a witch, in fact he made it sound like a good thing.

By the time her mum came up to tell her to go to sleep, Lily had come to the decision that she would go and find the Snape boy at the park tomorrow and make him explain himself, although she would have to do it without Petunia as she knew her sister would not agree to such a thing.

So the next day Lily went to the park as decided. However, she was extremely disappointed when she found that Snape wasn't there. Her usual game of floating from the swings didn't seem nearly as fun when she was so intensely curious as to what Snape would say.

Despite her disappointment, Lily didn't give up. She went back the next day and the next day and the next day. A whole week had passed when she finally saw Snape sitting underneath a large tree just beyond the park. At first Lily hadn't realised she had seen him and continued towards the swings as she always did, but once it hit her she doubled back and quickly approached the boy.

When her shadow fell over him, the sallow faced boy looked up and was clearly shocked by the sight of her.

"What did you mean when you called me a witch?" Lily asked bluntly, not wanting to waste any time after how long she had to wait to see him again.

"I – I really didn't mean it as an – an insult. It's just – you can do magic," Snape stuttered, rather nervous at accidentally igniting her temper again and making her storm off.

Lily considered him for a moment, before she came to the conclusion that he was being genuine and sat down beside him.

"What's your name?" Lily asked kindly, smiling.

Snape looked at her as though he had never seen anything quite like her, but said "Severus. Severus Snape."

Lily had never heard of a name quite like that and idly wondered if it was because he was a wizard that he had such a strange name, but knew it would be rude to ask.

"I'm-" she started.

"Lily Evans," Severus cut in, already knowing.

"Learn that from spying on me, did you?" Lily asked.

Severus' pale face flushed with colour and, shifting uncomfortably on his spot, he looked ready to deny spying or perhaps apologise for it, but then he caught the teasing smile on Lily's face and the twinkle in her eyes and he allowed himself a smile.

Lily began to spend more and more time with Severus, fascinated by all his stories of the wizarding world. He told her about the different animals, like hippogriffs and unicorns, and about the secret wizarding street called Diagon Alley in London, and most of all, he told her about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lily couldn't wait to go to such a magical place and spent late nights just looking at her ceiling and imagining it.

Nearly three weeks after their first meeting, Lily and Severus sat amongst a small thicket of trees, a sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool, green shade. The two of them sat facing each other, cross legged on the ground. Severus was telling her about the Ministry of Magic now and Lily listened with rapt attention.

"…and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside of school, you get letters"

"But we _have_ done magic outside of school!" Lily exclaimed, looking worried and half expecting Ministry officials to swoop down on them at that very moment.

"We're all right," Severus assured. "We haven't got wants yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once you're eleven," he nodded importantly, "and they start training you, then you've got to be careful"

There was a little silence. Lily picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, imagining sparks trailing from it. how amazing would it be to be able to do magic? For all the wonderful and magical things Lily had read about, she never could have imagine she would actually be able to live it.

"It is real, isn't it?" Lily asked, dropping the twig and looking at Severus to await his answer. "It's not a joke? Petunia says you're lying to us. She says there isn't a Hogwarts. It _is_ real, isn't it?"

Lily looked at Severus with wide green eyes, silently begging him to tell her it was real and that he was telling the truth, because she couldn't possibly imagine having to give up this fantasy and go to the normal high school that Petunia had attended for the past three years.

"It's real for us," said Severus. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me"

"Really?" Lily whispered, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Definitely," said Severus, and even with his poorly cut hair and his odd clothes, he struck an oddly impressive figure sprawled in front of them, brim-full of confidence in his destiny.

Lily grinned now.

"And the letters will really come by owl?"

"Normally," said Severus. "But you're a Muggleborn, so someone from the school will have to come and explain it to your parents"

"Does it make a difference, being Muggleborn?" Lily asked, confessing something that had been worrying her ever since Severus had explained about Muggleborns and Purebloods.

Severus hesitated, but Lily didn't notice.

"No," he said. "It doesn't make a difference"

She relaxed and gave her friend a smile. Lily lay back and stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. Severus looked down at her with an almost greedy expression.

"How are things at your house?" Lily asked.

A little creased appeared between his eyes.

"Fine," he said.

"They're not arguing anymore?" Lily pressed, strongly suspecting he wasn't being entirely truthful.

Severus had confided in her that the reason he spent so much time away from his house was because his parents had taken to arguing a lot, really bad arguments that often included throwing the nearest object. Apparently Severus' dad was not all that impressed with his mum being a witch, and certainly not his son being a wizard. It didn't help that he was an angry drunk.

"Oh, yes, they're arguing," said Severus. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart absentmindedly. "But it won't be that long and I'll be gone"

Lily thought that was a negative way of thinking about it, as the one thing that worried about Hogwarts, other than the fact she was Muggleborn, was that she would be away from her family.

"Doesn't your dad like magic?" Lily asked and a frown creased her expression as she began to wonder if she would start getting into arguments with Petunia as she didn't seem to like magic either.

"He doesn't like anything, much," said Severus.

"Severus?" Lily asked.

A little smile twisted at the corner of his mouth when she said his name.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about the Dementors again"

"What do you want to know about them for?" he asked.

"If I use magic outside school-"

"They wouldn't give you to the Dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too-"

Severus turned red and shredded more leads. Lily looked up at him, wondering what he was embarrassed about. There was a sudden rustling noise from up ahead and the two of them looked over to see that Petunia, who had been hiding being a tree, had lost her footing.

"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Severus jumped to his feet.

"Who's spying now?!" he shouted. "What d'you want?"

Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Lily also got to her feet, looking anxiously between her sister and friend, not liking the looks they were giving each other.

"What is that you're wearing anyway?" Petunia said, pointing at Severus' chest in a clear attempt to insult him. "Your mum's blouse?"

Lily thought that was a horrible thing to say as it wasn't Severus' fault his family didn't have much money, but before she could say anything there was a crack. A branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed: the branch caught Petunia on the shoulder and she staggered backwards and burst into tears.

"Tuney!" Lily exclaimed in panic, but Petunia was running away. Lily rounded angrily on Severus. "Did you make that happen?" she demanded.

"No," he looked both defiant and scared.

"You did!" Lily shouted, backing away from him. "You _did_! You hurt her!"

"No – no, I didn't!"

The lie didn't convince Lily at all: after one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after their sister, and hoping that she was okay.

It was another week before Lily spoke to Severus again, terribly angry and hurt that he would harm her sister in such a horrible way. However, when he came hurrying up to her in the park one day, a letter clasped in his hand and exclaimed that it was from Hogwarts, Lily, beside herself with joy, couldn't help but talk to him. But her joy soon began to dissipate when her letter hadn't come. Every day she looked up at the sky, hoping to see an owl come by, but it never did.

A week later, Lily had begun to think it wouldn't come.

"You'll get one!" Severus insisted, as Lily sniffed, her eyes looking rather misty. "You have to. you did controlled magic without even a wand, there's no way you won't get into Hogwarts"

"Then why hasn't my letter come?" Lily asked despondently, pulling the view master from her face to look at her friend.

Since it was raining, the two of them were holed up in the Evans' living room, because God knows they couldn't go to the Snape's. Lily was sitting upside down on the settee, every now and again looking into the view master and clicking it to see a different image. Severus was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of her, his hands tangled in a cat's cradle that he had made.

"Maybe – maybe it's just a bit late," Severus said, clearly trying to stay positive, which was an odd shift in their dynamic. "I mean, there are probably a lot of people they have to send them to"

"But they have magic, shouldn't it be easy to get them all out at the same time?" Lily asked, giving another sniff.

Severus looked at a loss for anything to say and began to twist the string in his hand, but in the end he didn't need to speak. There was an odd tapping noise from the kitchen, and Lily twisted herself the right way up so that she could look at the kitchen window through the doorway. Her eyes widened when she saw what had made the noise.

"It's an owl!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Sev, it's an owl! It's here!"

Lily jumped to her feet and so did Severus. Both grinning, they rushed into the kitchen. Once Lily opened the kitchen window, the owl flew passed her to land gracefully on top of the table and stuck it's leg out. Lily and Severus shared a grin and she reached forward to relieve the owl of its burden.

"I told you," Severus smiled, looking happier than Lily had ever seen him.

"Oh yeah? Then why do you look so relieved?" Lily teased, her grin never leaving her face.

Lily didn't open the letter straight away, instead looking down at it in absolute delight. Written in beautiful emerald green lettering was:

_Miss L Evans_

_The third bedroom_

_Juniper Avenue_

_Cokeworth_

Turning it over, Lily was met with a wax seal, which had the coat of arms of an owl, a lion, a snake and a badger all surrounding the letter H. Sharing one more look with Severus, Lily tore into the letter, ignoring the owl, who ruffled its feathers importantly and left out the window just as it had come.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1__st__. We await your owl by no later than July 31__st__. Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Lily felt tears of joy pool in her eyes.

It was official.

She was going to Hogwarts.


	3. Gods and Monsters

Chapter Two

_Diagon Alley_

In the outskirts of Godric's Hollow, out of the view of any muggles in the area, was Potter Manor. It was a huge building made a grey stone and a number of well-kept plants, both magical and mundane, bordering the large path that led up to the front door. On said door was a golden knocker shaped like a lion to symbolise the many generations of Gryffindor Potters.

As soon as you were to step inside, you could see how magical the house was, the Potters were an old pureblood family after all. The portraits of ancestors on the walls were moving and talking amongst themselves, the mirror in the bathroom shouted criticisms and currently two house elves were serving breakfast for Charlus and Dorea Potter, the former of which was reading a newspaper, which had moving pictures, called The Daily Prophet, and the latter of which was tying a finished letter, written on parchment, to a brown screech owls leg and sending it on its way.

In one of the many bedrooms of the Manor, the third and final member of the family's hazel eyes blearily opened. James Potter blinked and tiredly reached a hand over to his bedside table to retrieve his round spectacles and put them on his face. Now able to see clearly he sat up, his black hair sticking up every which way as it always did.

Stretching and letting out a yawn, James got out of bed and stumbled the overly long trip it took to get to the kitchen. Grunting a good morning to his mum and dad James slumped down into a chair and immediately stuffed some toast in his mouth.

His mother sighed.

"Oh honestly, your manners are almost as bad as your hair," his mum said, moving to stand behind James and ran her hands through his black tresses in a hope to flatten them.

Dorea Potter had once been a member of the prestigious Black family, before having been disowned for not only marrying a Bloodtraitor, but being one herself. But despite her being nothing like her family, it didn't change the fact she was raised by them. That meant that not only did she have the beauty all Blacks possessed, high cheekbones and silky Black hair, but that she also liked things neat and in their place. This of course was among one of the only reasons the manor was still standing with a boy like James as a son, who seemed to have the need to run headlong into trouble.

"No use even trying, darling," his father laughed. "He's got the Potter hair, it's a curse we have to balance out our dashing good looks," he winked at James, who laughed as his mum hit his dad over the back of his head.

James' father was his idol and always had been. Before he retired Charlus Potter had been one of the best Aurors the Ministry had ever seen. He even trained Alastor Moody, who not only was an excellent Auror himself, but was now also head of the department. When James' Hogwarts letter came shortly after his eleventh birthday, just as he knew it would, he knew instantly that he wanted to be in Gryffindor, just as his dad was. Not that he didn't love his mum, but he knew that Slytherins were bad news, it just so happened that his mother had been the exception that proved the rule.

"Are you excited for today?" his mum asked James once she sat down again, having given up on his hair just as his father had said.

It was then that James noticed that she was wearing her best cream robes and his father was not in his pyjamas as he usually was in the morning, so he knew they must be going somewhere. It was another five seconds before he realised where and when he did his hazel eyes widened considerably. His parent's shared a grin when he visibly bubbled with excitement. Today was the day they were going to Diagon Alley to get all his Hogwarts things.

"I can't believe my baby boy's all grown up and going off to Hogwarts soon," his mum said, her warm brown eyes overly bright as she smoothed back his messy black hair again, this time to press a kiss to his temple.

"Mum," James groaned, his cheeks turning a light pink. He would never admit that he actually rather liked the affection.

"Okay, okay, I'm fine," his mum said, pulling away, but James was sure he heard a distinct sniffle. "Go and get dressed, the Longbottom's will be here soon"

James nodded, and after eating his last bite of toast, proceeded to go upstairs to pull on a pair of robes and brush his teeth, glaring at his mirror when it commented on how scruffy he looked.

"I'm in a rush!" he snapped at it, and left to go back downstairs, but not before he heard the mirror make a disapproving tutting noise.

Just as his parents said, not soon after the three of them had pulled on their shoes and cloaks, green flames erupted in the fireplace and three figures stepped lithely out into the Potter's living room.

The Longbottom's had been family friends for a long while, Mr and Mrs Longbottom having been a few years below his parents in Hogwarts. Mrs Longbottom was a formidable woman with stern eyes, a vulture hat and a large red handbag. Mr Longbottom however was the complete opposite, having mischievous eyes and the habit of pulling small pranks on his wife, much to her chagrin. Finally, there was their son, Frank.

Frank was two years ahead of James, now going into his third year, but he and James got on well. James liked having someone at least fairly close to his age to hang out with as his parents were very old and therefore the fact they even had James was a miracle let alone any other kids, and since his mother had been disowned and didn't talk about her family and his father was an only child it wasn't like James had any other family members either.

"Hey, Frank," James greeted with a grin.

"Hey, James," Frank said back, retuning his grin and amusement swimming in his brown eyes as he took in James' giddy appearance.

James was now all but bouncing with excitement. It wasn't like he had never been to Diagon Alley before, on the contrary, he had been a great number of times whenever his mum or dad had errands to run, or when his parents let him pick out a new broom for his eleventh birthday (it was a Nimbus 1000), which sadly would not be accompanying him to Hogwarts, but this was different. They were going to be buying his Hogwarts things. He would get school robes and spell books and a pet and most especially, his wand. A wand of his very own! This was something he had been looking forward to since he was only five, having stolen his father's wand and somehow caused his mother's cat, may he rest in peace, to be able to walk up the walls. (It had taken his mum hours to fix, his dad too busy laughing to be much of a help, but that wasn't anything to do with his mother's inability to correct the magic, but because it had taken so long just to get the cat off the ceiling)

His parents greeted Mr and Mrs Longbottom, his mum and Mrs Longbottom doing that strange air kissing thing that all women seem to do, and his dad shaking hands with Mr Longbottom.

Soon after, the six of them took the floo to the Leaky Cauldron. Despite being an extremely famous place, as it was one of the few places that blended seamlessly in between the wizarding and muggle streets, it was a shabby dwelling; it was dark and smelled vaguely of smoke, which more than likely was coming from the young woman who was smoking a pipe in the corner. Regardless of all this, James loved sitting in the Leaky Cauldron as all manner of people always passed through, James even swears he saw a hag once, but Frank maintained that it was just a very ugly woman.

"Gringotts first, I think," Mr Longbottom said as he stepped out of the fireplace, being the last through the floo, and brushed off his robes.

So they set off up Diagon Alley towards the pure white building at the end of the street. His parents and Mr and Mrs Longbottom led the way, while James and Frank trailed behind.

"So, are you excited for Hogwarts?" Frank asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Of course I am!" James exclaimed immediately. "I've been waiting for this my entire life. Trust me, within a week I will be the best prankster that school has ever seen" he declared and Frank laughed.

"I don't doubt it. I can still remember the last prank you pulled on me, it took a month to get the stink of those dungbombs off me," Frank said good-naturedly and James grinned.

James thought perhaps that it wasn't the idea of becoming a prankster that most excited him about Hogwarts though, but rather the idea of making friends, not that he'd ever admit it. James had never wanted for anything at home, although his parents did teach him to be well-mannered, but the one thing his parents couldn't give him was the company of people of his own age and so that became the one thing he longed most to have.

"I bet I can get my mother to scold me more than you can before we get to the Bank," Frank said, braking James out of his thoughts.

James' brows rose at the challenge.

"You're on" he said, rather competitively.

As they continued down the street, making as much noise and mayhem as they could, even at one point trying to crawl and skip simultaneously on the cobbled ground, James felt an intense appreciation for Frank's friendship. Frank was kind and caring and wore his heart on his sleeve, expressing friendliness to almost everyone he meets. But mostly James liked his comedic sense of humour, Frank had the ability to put a smile on everyone's face.

"James! For Merlin's sake, behave!" his mother hissed as they finally came to the bank.

Frank groaned at this and James threw his arms in the air victoriously, having won the game from that last telling off. His dad and Mr Longbottom laughed at their antics, while James' mum couldn't stop a fond smile and Mrs Longbottom's face was pinched in disapproval.

Once they had gotten the gold from their vaults, they exited the white marble building, being bowed to by a goblin as they did, and blinked against the sudden brilliant light.

"Where are we going first?" James asked, excited to get started.

James shared a look with Frank when no one answered and they looked up at their parents, but saw that they had been distracted by something behind them. James turned around to follow their gaze and was vaguely aware of Frank doing the same beside him. It wasn't hard to see what, or rather who, had gotten their attention.

It was the Blacks.

The crowd of people seemed to literally part for them as they walked down the street. At the head was Mr and Mrs Black, blank faced and stunning, with their sons trailing behind them with a grace that seemed to be ingrained in their very core. James couldn't take his eyes off them if he tried. The Blacks demanded attention, and if you said that your gaze wasn't drawn to them, well then you were lying.

Mrs Black glanced up and caught the Potters and Longbottoms stares, but instead of passing over them as though they were of little consequence like she did everyone else, her dark eyed gaze lingered on James' mum, but if it weren't for the sneer on her face, the famous Black sneer that everyone was scared to be on the receiving end of, James wouldn't have known she felt anything other than indifference.

James frowned and finally tore his eyes away to look up at his mum, who was suddenly wearing a scowl that marred her beautiful face.

"Who is she, Mum?" James asked.

"That's Walburga Black, my niece, a few times removed," his mum answered tightly, not taking her eyes from Mrs Black as she glared at them. "Her eldest must be starting Hogwarts this year."

"You'd best stay away from him, James," his father said and James switched his gaze over to him to see that his dad's face was unusually stern.

"You too, Frank," Mr Longbottom agreed.

"Don't need to tell me," Frank scoffed and James was surprised to see that he was also wearing a scowl. It was strange for Frank to talk negatively about anyone, as he always seemed to find the best in people. "I'm just glad it was Bellatrix Black's final year last year. You should have heard what she had done to one of the muggleborn fifth years" he said in an unusually dark voice.

"What did she do?" James asked curiously, but he almost dreaded the answer.

"Let's just say that they won't be returning to Hogwarts this year," Frank said, shuddering with what must be a memory.

James was ashamed to say that when he looked back at the Black's, just in time to see them disappear into Ollivander's, there was a good dose of fear in his eyes. Intoxicating, untouchable and wicked, the Blacks thought themselves to be God's, but James knew better. He looked up at the scowling people at his side, before looking back to where the Blacks had disappeared. He knew they were monsters.

"Well," Mrs Longbottom said bracingly, snapping everyone out of the dark cloud that had been hovering over them since the Blacks' appearance, "why don't Charlus and Nathanial go and fetch the boys' school books and Dorea and I shall take them to get robes fitted?"

Everyone nodded their consent to this plan and they split apart. James went to Madam Malkin's with his mum, Mrs Longbottom and Frank.

"Ah, Augusta, it's been a while since I've seen you, not since Frank's first year," Madam Malkin greeted Mrs Longbottom with a bright smile.

"I know, we were abroad last summer, so we got his robes while we were away," Mrs Longbottom said, her tone suggesting that it wasn't what she had planned. "How are you, Rosemary? How's your little boy getting on?"

"I'm good, thank you, and Jack's just at the stage of being able to crawl so he's getting into everything," Madam Malkin sighed and it was then that James noticed that she did look rather worn out.

"Don't have to tell me what a nightmare that is, James is still getting into things," his mum said, ruffling James' hair and shooting him a teasing look.

"Mum," James whined, pushing away her hand and ruffling his hair back in the acceptable mess it had been in before and pouting when everyone else laughed at him.

"First year at Hogwarts, dear?" Madam Malkin asked and James nodded. "Come this way then, I'm fitting another first year right now. Yasmin, will you take Mr Longbottom to be fitted please?" she called over to another member of staff as she led James away. "Here we are," she said as she gestured for James to stand upon a stool beside a stout, blonde haired boy with watery blue eyes.

Madam Malkin pulled a pair of extremely large robes over James' head and with a wave of her wand a tape measure began to take his measurements by itself and pins began to slide in at different points.

The boy beside James kept glancing at him, before he would quickly glance away, pretending not to have looked. James' lips quirked and he would have ruffled his hair had it not been for the tape measure now measuring the length of his arm. James liked the attention he was getting from this boy, he liked attention in general really, his mum said that he got it from his dad, but he wasn't too sure, his mum used to be a Black after all and James doubted they went even a second without getting someone's attention.

"Are you for Hogwarts, too?" James asked, deciding to make conversation as despite not having that many people to socialise with, he was a people-person at heart.

The boy jumped and turned his head, seeming to think he was talking to someone else and James' lips twitched into a smirk.

"Y-yes," the boy stuttered, looking up at James with wide eyes as though amazed he was even talking to him.

"Me too," James smiled brightly, the type of smile that just drew people in. "I'm going to be a Gryffindor, just like my dad. What house do you think you'll be in?"

The boy seemed to be rather put out at the question as he sighed and flattened his already flat blonde hair.

"Probably Hufflepuff," the boy answered despondently.

James looked at the boy with a grimace at his answer. If he was being honest, he looked like a Hufflepuff to James too, but he decided that it wouldn't be best to point that out.

"Well, I suppose you don't know until you get there," he said instead.

When James had finished with his fitting he was glad to be back with Frank, not thinking he could talk to the boy much longer without saying something rude. The boy seemed rather weak and fumbling and while James by no means judged people on that, it was in James' nature to make fun of people and he didn't think that boy would be able to take it all that well.

The four of them left Madam Malkin's only after James and Frank groaned at their mums to get a move on already as they were having a conversation with Madam Malkin that seemed to never end. James and Frank shared a glance, rolling their eyes as they finally closed the door behind them. What was it with mother's and needing to converse with every other female in the vicinity?

They met up with his dad and Mr Longbottom in the apothecary to get their potion ingredients. The two men had also gotten James a cauldron seeing as they had managed to get the books a lot quicker than they had gotten fitted into robes.

"Finally," his dad said when they entered the strange smelling shop.

"We were beginning to think the robes had eaten you," Mr Longbottom quipped and James, his dad and Frank cracked smiles while the two women sent him unimpressed looks.

"If you must know, fitting the boys with robes took longer than expected," Mrs Longbottom sniffed.

"Hm-mm," Mr Longbottom hummed and looking at his wife with an expression that showed he wasn't buying it.

"And how is Rosemary?" James' dad asked the two women, winking at James and Frank and the two of them snickered.

His mum and Mrs Longbottom didn't reply, which only served to prove the men's point and the four males laughed as they entered the shop. While their parents bought their ingredients James and Frank nosed around the different ingredients.

James picked up a vile that seemed to be some creature's tiny eyes swimming in a slimy green liquid.

"Hey, Frank, I'll give you a galleon if you drink this," James said with a wicked grin, holding out the vile to the taller boy.

"No way!" Frank groaned. "I think I'll be sick just looking at it," he added, shoving the vile out of his face and James laughed.

Their next stop was Eeylops Owl Emporium so that James could get a pet. As he entered the shop James passed a pretty red haired girl with brilliant green eyes, who looked extremely happy with a white and grey kitten she seemed to have just bought.

Inside the shop, bird cages seemed to reach the ceiling and there were different cages that held a multitude of different animals stacked precariously at every turn. James and Frank were greatly impressed with a lizard that seemed to like entertaining them by giving itself different animal parts. The funniest was when it gave itself rabbit ears and it toppled forward in a type of summersault because they were too heavy for its body.

Five minutes later a snowy white owl perched itself on James' head and no matter what he did, he was unable to get it to go away. Frank found this endlessly funny.

"Maybe he mistook your hair for a bird's nest, mate," Frank joked.

"Oh, ha ha," James said sarcastically, but he did allow himself a smile and he reached up a hand to stroke the feathers of the bird on his head and it hooted happily in response. "I'd like to have this one," James said as they went back to their parents on the other side of the shop.

His dad, mum and Mr Longbottom took one look at James and began to laugh and even Mrs Longbottom allowed herself a smile, which was amazing in itself. Frank seemed to think so too as he whispered: "She smiled, alert the daily prophet" while made James began to snicker.

Once James' dad handed the old wizard behind the counter the money for the owl, who James had dubbed Owlington, a name he thought was hilarious in his eleven-year-old humour, they had managed to convince the owl into a cage so that they were able to take him from the shop.

Finally it was time to go to the place James had been so eagerly awaiting. Ollivander's. He was about to get his very own wand. His parents went with the Longbottoms to Fortescue's ice cream parlour further down the street, having said that getting a wand was a very private experience, so James entered Ollivander's on his own.

The shop was very dark and dusty, with just one lone lamp lighting it. James looked up and turned on the spot, looking at shelf after shelf of boxes of wands that seemed to continue as far as he could see.

"Ah, Mr Potter, I presume"

James jumped at the sudden voice and whirled around, but when he did he let out a yelp of surprise and stumbled backward, almost falling. A man with grey hair and silvery eyes, who James could only guess was Mr Ollivander, had been standing only an inch away.

James calmed himself and narrowed his eyes at the man.

"You did that on purpose," he accused, but Mr Ollivander said nothing to agree or disagree with the statement, only continued as though James had said nothing.

"I sold your parent's their wands too, you know. I knew I would be seeing you soon," Ollivander said and James resisted a shiver as his silvery gaze locked on him, almost like he could see into his very soul. "Which is your wand arm?" he asked.

"My right," James said decisively and held out his right arm.

"Welcome to Ollivander's, makers of fine wands since three hundred and eighty two BC. Every Ollivander's wand has a core of a very powerful magical substance, we use only the finest ingredients: unicorn hair, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as now two unicorns, phoenixes or dragons are quite the same. And of course, you will never get quite good results with another wizard's wand," as Ollivander said this a measuring tape, much like the one in Madam Malkin's, began to measure James, only this time measuring old places like the length between his wrist and nose and around his head. "That's enough, thank you," Ollivander said and the measuring tape crumpled to the ground.

Mr Ollivander climbed slightly up the ladder behind the desk and retrieved a wand box, before coming back and setting the box on the counter, removing a dark wand.

"Dragon heartstring and oak, a sturdy wand, very good at defence work," he said, handing it to James.

James waved the wand, but before he had even finished arcing it, Ollivander snatched it away.

"No, no, that won't do at all," he said, putting the wand back in the box.

He looked at James with a thoughtful expression and James had to resist the urge to shift uncomfortably under the gaze.

"I think I have it!" Ollivander exclaimed quite suddenly and James jumped.

He disappeared around the corner and James leaned forward to try and see where he went, but a second later he returned, a wand box in his hands.

"Try, this," he said, removing a wand from the box and handing him a pale brown, thin wand which had smaller dark sections where a kind of zig-zagging pattern was carved.

As soon as James had the wand in his grip he felt a warmth spread from his wand hand, up through his arm and take root somewhere in his chest. He bought the wand up over his head, before bringing it down again and the whole of the room seemed to brighten and glow for a moment as though golden fire flies had erupted in the air. A grin bloomed on James' face.

"Ah, bravo!" Mr Ollivander cried, clapping his hands together and James ruffled his hair, still grinning. "It seems you favour a mahogany wand, well, I say you favour it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard of course." He took the wand from James to return it to its box and wrap it up. "Eleven inches. Pliable. A lot of power and excellent for transfiguration. That'll be five galleons"

James handed Ollivander the money and all but ran out of the shop in his haste to get back to his parents and the Longbottoms, eager to show them his very own wand.


	4. Of Blacks and Lilys

Chapter Three

_Of Blacks and Lilys_

The Blacks were a dysfunctional family, filled with pureblood mania and the belief that to be a Black made you practically royal. If a person were to mess with a Black, they would have the whole family after them within days, jouncing for brutal vengeance. The Blacks were a tight knit group, beautiful and unapproachable, so it was hardly a surprise that they went through Kings Cross Station together.

At the head was Bellatrix Black. A warrior even in name. She had a dark beauty about her. Her hair was a mass of dark curls, and her angular face made her appearance almost as sharp as her tongue. She had high cheekbones, red lips and her heavy lidded eyes were a black that often glinted with the madness that was not uncommon in the Black family, which many suspected came from the inbreeding. Bellatrix was not at all cautious with her tongue, knowing that with her name came the fact she was better than everyone else, but she was far from unintelligent. She had the ability to pick out a person's weaknesses and because of this and so many other things, she was powerful, fierce and destined to be deadly. Bellatrix looked at the world with the sole belief that it was hers to take.

At her side was the youngest of the Black sisters, Narcissa. Narcissa was the opposite of her beloved sister. She had the same high cheekbones and pale skin as her elder sister, but her hair was a white blonde and her eyes a steel grey. Even with her nose turned up in superiority and arrogance, Narcissa was as hauntingly beautiful as the other members of her family. She learnt how to take her place and step lightly, so that she was able to deflect and twist other people's words to her advantage, unlike Bellatrix who countered and responded until the other was whipped into place.

On the other side of Narcissa, was Regulus, the youngest Black brother. Regulus' beauty was more subtle, his jet black hair cropped short and his eyes the same shade of impenetrable blackness as Bellatrix's, only they weren't nearly as cruel and taunting. Only nine years old, he still had a strange air of innocence about him. Regulus held himself with an elegance that could only be achieved by someone who believed themselves to be imperial. Regulus had a cold temper and already at his young age he was a born manipulator, he was excellent at getting his way, with no one being any the wiser.

Just behind the three of them, was Andromeda, the final and middle Black sister. Andromeda looked much like her older sister, they could be seen as twins if it weren't for the age difference. However, her black hair was a shade lighter and her eyes much kinder, she didn't command the same attention as Bellatrix did, who walked through the street like everyone and everything was hers to control. Andromeda had a knack for charms, whether it was magical charms or charming people, having a sweet smile that hid the wicked intelligence within. However, Andromeda was infinitely more questioning and curious than her siblings and cousin, which led to her dabbling in inter-house relations and not quite fully believing anything her family told her.

At Andromeda's side was Sirius, the eldest Black brother. Much like Bellatrix, Sirius was eerily beautiful with pale skin and dark hair that curled to his ears, the high cheekbones and strong jaw that came with being a Black, and silvery grey eyes. His eyes were mischievous and his smile wicked. Sirius was excellent at getting inside people's heads and under their skin, gauging whatever made them tick and using it to his advantage. Just like Bellatrix he had a sharp tongue and a volatile temper, but he also had Andromeda's natural curiosity that, if he weren't such a skilled manipulator, would have gotten him into trouble.

"One would think," Bellatrix was saying, her black eyes moving about her surroundings in a calculating way that showed she was always in control, "that with a school such as Hogwarts, we would be able to get there without having to pass by _muggles._"

At that point she was looking upon an elderly muggle woman with a look of extreme distaste. Bellatrix was skilled at hiding her emotions and thoughts just as all Blacks were, so the fact she didn't even bother hiding her disdain showed how sure she was in her superiority to them.

Sirius and Andromeda shared a look, but otherwise held their tongues, knowing better than to ignite Bellatrix's temper in a public place such as this.

"At least you've left now, Bella," said Narcissa softly, ever being the mediator within the Black children.

"Yes, I suppose," Bellatrix said haughtily, eyeing her youngest sibling, "and I will be married before too long."

"You're still with _Rodolphus_ then?" said Sirius, sneering Bellatrix's fiancé's name as though it tasted foul on his tongue, so that his resemblance to Narcissa became all the more evident.

Sirius had never liked Rodolphus, mainly because he lacked a conscience. Bellatrix, while enjoying hurting others, at least had a conscience when it came to hurting her family, not that it would stop her, but she would at least care somewhat. He thought nothing of luring innocent students to Bellatrix to practice on back when they were in Hogwarts, as Bellatrix had told Sirius all the details, perhaps to brag, perhaps to give advice for Sirius if he were to do the same. He was just sadistic, and yes, perhaps Bellatrix was the same, but she was his cousin so Sirius didn't mind it as much.

Bellatrix turned to her favourite cousin, an amused look swimming in her dark eyes and her red lips quirked upwards in a smirk. No doubt she was recalling the incident that made Sirius' dislike of the man to escalate. Ever the follower, he had told Sirius' Granddad Arcturus that it was him who had ordered Kreature to put the stink pellets in Grandma Irma's soup; he had gotten quite the beating.

"Now, now, cousin, no need to hold a grudge," Bellatrix taunted, delighting in Sirius's dislike of the man, even if they were on good terms at the moment. "Besides we got them back."

This time it was Sirius' turn to smirk and his fathomless grey eyes mirrored the same dark humour that resided in Bellatrix's.

Despite Andromeda being Sirius' favourite cousin, Sirius got on better with Bellatrix than anyone else managed. Perhaps it was because they were so alike. They had the same piercing features and silver-tipped tongue, the same fierce temper and ability to duel as though it were a dance, the same talent at countering every insult with a better one. When he and Bellatrix got along, people were weary, knowing what the two could accomplish together, but when they were fighting, it was colossal.

Together Sirius and Bellatrix had taken Rodolphus down a peg, being her cousin meant that Bellatrix's loyalty was to Sirius before it was to her fiancé. They fed him Veritaserum until he confessed to every wrong doing he had ever done in the presence of the whole family…the next time Sirius saw him there were more bruises on his face than skin.

"That we did," Sirius agreed, regarding his eldest cousin fondly.

"We're here," said Regulus.

Sirius looked up to see that his younger brother was indeed correct. They had stopped a few feet away from the barrier between platforms nine and ten, the secret entrance to platform nine and three quarters.

"Do you want to sneak away?" Andromeda muttered in his ear, a mischievous look seldom seen on her face appearing. "We can leave them alone in their pure-blood mania"

Sirius' face split apart into a true smile only his family had the pleasure of seeing every so often, his grey eyes lighting up with the prospect of actually being able to talk freely, without Bellatrix's dark eyes reminding him that he must avoid muggleborns at all cost and must, with no exceptions, get into Slytherin.

"You go first, I'll be right behind you," Sirius whispered and Andromeda smiled, nodding.

Sirius turned his attention back to his brother and other cousins, subtly moving forward so that he, his trunk and owl, were blocking Andromeda so that she would be able to slip away unspotted.

"I wish I was going," said Regulus, but he wasn't whining or pouting, as that would be most unbecoming of a Black, especially in public.

"Only two more years to wait, Reg," said Narcissa comfortingly, laying a delicate hand on his shoulder.

"I don't expect he wants to wait at all, I know you were always terribly upset when Andromeda and I left for school," said Bellatrix, arcing a brow in a condescending fashion towards her youngest sister, who got a subtle pink tinge to her cheeks.

Sirius eyes his brother and cousins, making sure their attention was fully on each other, before silently moving away, his black screech owl's, Peverall's, cage in his left hand and his right pulling his school trunk behind him. Since his gaze was locked on his relatives as he moved towards the magical barrier, he didn't notice the muggle man heading towards him and they ran into each other.

Sirius staggered slightly with the collision, but while he managed to stay on his feet, he inadvertently let go of his trunk and there was a loud indignant screech from Peverall as his cage fell to the floor, along with all the parchment that the man had been holding.

He quickly picked up Peverall's cage before moving to help the man to pick up all he had dropped. Sirius couldn't help but frown as he did, feeling at the parchment in confusion. It was much thinner than parchment and it was pure white. How strange, he thought. It must be a muggle thing, he decided, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said politely, feeling rather bad that he had ran into this man, who looked to be in quite the hurry. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

He couldn't help but spare a glance over his shoulder to make sure his family couldn't see him conversing with the 'scum' and apologising no less. He held in a sigh of relief as he saw the other three Blacks disappear through the barrier.

"No, no, no, don't even mention it, it was entirely my fault, I was running late, you see," the muggle man said kindly, before he looked at his wristwatch, which Sirius eyed curiously, not having seen anything like it, it didn't even have planets on it! "I must dash. I'm sorry again!" he said, before quickly hurrying away.

Sirius watched after the man, taking in the strange clothing he was wearing. He had just spoken to a muggle for the first time in his life and he couldn't help but noticed that the man had hardly seemed the vile creature his family made him out to be. That had to prove that he and Andromeda were on the right lines, they had never put much stock in their families superiority as due to their curios and questioning nature they needed proof, and they simply never saw any.

Sirius shook himself out of his stupor, not about to miss the Hogwarts Express now that he finally got to go, he had been waiting for this since Bellatrix turned eleven, that was seven years ago now.

He moved and placed Peverall's cage upon his trunk on the trolley and straightened it out. He was just about to head towards the barrier at a quick pace (Blacks didn't run), when he caught something out of the corner of his eyes, or rather, someone. Turning, he saw that it was a red headed girl, looking to be the same age as him, and she was…crying.

He glanced at the barrier, then back at the girl before sighing in resignation, grimacing slightly, and moved towards the girl instead. Sirius was hardly looking forward to being close to a crying girl, as it wasn't like he had much experience in emotions, something which was frowned upon in his family.

Sirius only stopped when he was standing in front of her. She was sitting on top of her trunk, beside a small wicker basket, which, based on the mewling, Sirius suspected held a kitten. Her head was in her hands, her shoulders shaking and her red hair spilling downwards.

"…Are you okay?" Sirius asked, feeling awkward to say the least, his hands buried in the pockets of his charcoal robes, which were, of course, adorned with the Black family crest.

"Do I look okay?" the girl said, sniffling slightly and not removing his hands from her face, but her shoulders weren't shaking nearly as much now, so Sirius supposed she must at least be trying to console herself.

"Well, I suppose that's a matter of opinion," said Sirius in a would-be-thoughtful voice, "your red hair's rather pretty"

This gained a giggle out of the girl and Sirius smirked, feeling his ego swell ever-so-slightly with the accomplishment. The girl finally removed her hands from her face, but she didn't look up, instead giving another sniff as she wiped the tears from her freckled cheeks.

"Do you need help?" Sirius asked, wondering if she could find the platform, that was the only reason he could think of for this girl to be so distressed.

"I doubt you can help," said the girl, her shoulders slumping in what seemed to be defeat, something Sirius had never witnessed before, what with his family being so prideful, and he frowned slightly at the girl.

However, then he cottoned on to what she meant, always having a unique ability to read people, and a smirk appeared on his face. She clearly thought him to be a muggle and unable to help her get to the platform.

"Is that so?" Sirius asked with unconcealed amusement. "What with the trunk and the cat, I thought you would be going to Hogwarts, I suppose I should just leave you to it then…" he said, turning ever so slightly as if to leave, even though he had no intention of doing so.

At the mention of the wizarding school the girl's head snapped upwards and Sirius saw she had the brightest emerald eyes he had ever seen. He was only used to seeing his family, all dark blacks and grey, with the occasional white blonde like the Malfoys and Narcissa, but this girl was so…vibrant, for lack of a better word, and Sirius found he rather liked that.

The girl's green eyes darted to Peverall, who's amber gaze eyed her from his cage, to his trunk, to his robes, and then finally up to his face. Sirius raised a dark brow in a typical Black fashion, which made his aristocratic features stand out further.

"Oh, but you're a wizard!" the girl cried in relief, jumping to her feat.

"Am I?" Sirius gasped in faux shock and the girl crossed her arms in a huff, but her look of disapproval had no heat. "I'm going for my first year. You are too I'd wager, and a muggleborn"

"How did you know that?" the girl asked in surprise.

Sirius looked the girl up and down, taking in her outfit. She was wearing trousers made of a strange blue material and a t-shirt with a logo Sirius couldn't even begin to make sense of.

"Call it an educated guess," Sirius said, raising his grey eyes to meet hers again. "My name's Sirius Black" he said, giving a small bow.

Lily seemed to find this funny as she giggled when she gave a small curtsey. Sirius didn't know what was amusing, so he supposed muggle customs must just be different from wizarding ones.

"Lily Evans," the girl, Lily, said kindly, a smile lighting up her whole face, clearly at the prospect of not being lost on a muggle platform for much longer. "Do you know how to get onto the platform?" she asked.

"Yes," Sirius said shortly. Lily looked at him expectantly, but it faded when Sirius didn't answer, just raised his brows at her, finding it terribly amusing to make things difficult for people.

Seeming slightly impatient, Lily asked, "Well, where is it?"

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed in false surprise. "You wanted me to tell you where it was? Well, you should have said"

Lily rolled her eyes, but looked mildly amused nonetheless.

"Lily, I just asked an employee and he said-" a woman began as she came over, but she broke off when she saw that Lily wasn't alone. "Oh, hello" she said to Sirius.

"Mum, this is Sirius Black, he was just about to tell me how to get on the platform," Lily said, shooting Sirius a teasingly warning look, as though to tell him that he better actually tell her where it is this time.

Sirius thought she needn't have bothered as he knew better than to cause such difficulties in the presence of adults. If he did such a thing in front of his parents he would no doubt have a new bruise by the end of the day.

"Oh, that's good," Mrs Evans sighed in relief. "My husband and eldest daughter went on with one of your folk. I'm Lavender Evans, Lily's mother"

Sirius gave a short bow as he had done with Lily and Mrs Evans rose her brows in surprise. Even without it having been pointed out, Sirius would have known the woman was Lily's mother, due to the uncanny resemblance, the only difference being the eyes. But then the same could be said of him and Bellatrix and they were only cousins.

"Lovely to meet you, ma'am," Sirius said politely just as his parents had raised him to do so.

Lily looked rather surprised at Sirius' sudden shift in dynamic and he resisted the urge to smirk. He lived to surprise people and he almost always did. He had the ability to shift from teasing to polite to down-right vicious without even a change in expression.

"You to, Sirius," Mrs Evans said with a smile, seemingly charmed by him, just as most people were with the Blacks, that is if they weren't on the wrong side of them at one point.

"So, where's the platform?" Lily asked, trying to get them back on track.

"All you have to do is run straight at the wall between platforms nine and ten," he explained dutifully.

Both Lily and Mrs Evans glanced at the very solid looking wall, before looking back at Sirius sceptically, Lily worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"This isn't some horrid trick, is it?" Lily asked, looking at him warily, as though half expecting him to start laughing at how gullible she was being.

Sirius sighed and looked upon the muggleborn and her mother with a kindness that, before now, he had only shown his brother and Andromeda, and occasionally his other family members.

"No," said Sirius. "Would it make you feel better to do it together?"

"Yes, I'm sure that would be better," Mrs Evans said, both she and Lily wearing relieved smiles.

Sirius lined up his trolley with Lily's, before arranging himself so that he was on the left side, Lily was in the middle, one hand on each trolley, and Mrs Evans was on the right.

"Are you ready?" Sirius asked with a delighted smile, his grey eyes alighting with the possibilities that were soon to come as they took the train to Hogwarts.

Lily once again looked at the barrier, nerves drawing her brows together and causing the corner of her lips to get tucked away with worry as she looked up at her mother. She looked back at Sirius and must have found something reassuring in his face as she smiled and nodded.

Sirius, Lily and Mrs Evans all took off at a run at the same time, straight at the brick wall between the platforms. They passed through the barrier as though it were made of nothing more than fairy dust and skidded to a stop a few feet away. Looking back, he saw that it was now a wrought iron gateway that said _platform nine and three quarters_.

Lily let out a delighted laugh and Sirius smiled, if only because his new friend was smiling.

"Thank you, Sirius," Mrs Evans said.

"Yes, thanks," Lily agreed, and she spared him a brilliant smile, before she began to make her way across the platform with her mother, probably looking for her dad and sister.

Sirius turned to go his own way and as he did he heard Mrs Evans say "What a lovely boy" and a soft smile appeared on his face. He had never been called lovely before. Whenever he was complimented it was on his looks or his intelligence or his purity of blood, never on being a good person. He was surprised at how much that small compliment actually meant to him.

Sirius turned and watched Lily's and Mrs Evans' red hair disappear in the milling crowd on the platform. He had just made friends with a muggleborn and met her muggle mother. He couldn't wait to tell Andromeda. Finally, he allowed himself to look around his surroundings. To his left there was a brilliant scarlet train, emblazoned with the words 'Hogwarts Express' and pearly white smoke getting emitted from the chimney.

He couldn't stop the smile that appeared on his face as he began to look through the crowd, looking for Andromeda. He could hear people saying goodbye to loved ones and hello to friends they had missed over the summer and owls hooting as cats slunk through people's legs looking for owners. He passed a woman with a big red handbag and a vulture hat talking to her son: "Now, you better settle down, Frank, this is your third year, I expect good grades" "Oh mum-!" then he passed a woman in her eighties, with dark hair and even darker eyes, she was holding a broom in her hand and was glaring down at a messy haired bespectacled boy: "The letter specifically says you aren't allowed them" she was saying sternly, moving the broom further away as the boy went to grab it back.

Sirius allowed himself another smile, despite his mother and father not coming to see him off like those boys' mothers had. He looked about the crowd once more, but was unable to see those Black looks that stuck out like a house elf in a giant reserve, so decided that Andromeda and Narcissa must be on the train already.

He pulled out his new wand and pointed it at his trunk, saying "Locomotor trunk" in order to get his trunk to follow him onto the train. His parent's hand hired a tutor to teach him and Regulus basic spells like that, heaven forbid someone knew more than a Black. Sirius began to make his way down the train, looking into each compartment for any sign of his favourite cousin, laughing when he ducked a fanged Frisbee and heard a prefect yell, "Mundungus Fletcher, get back here! I know it's you who has the banned products!"

Sirius paused when he saw a compartment that was completely empty, save for his new muggleborn friend, Lily. She looked upset again, staring out of the train window with red rimmed green eyes and absently stroking the small grey and white kitten that was on her lap.

He frowned, wondering what could've upset her again, and went to enter the compartment to talk to her, however, no sooner had he touched the handle when he heard his name being called.

"Sirius!" He turned and saw that it was Narcissa, poking her head out of the compartment a few doors down. "Hurry now, before the corridors become too crowded"

"Coming, Cissy," Sirius replied, sparing one last concerned glance towards Lily and going to the compartment when Narcissa was.

The compartment already held six people. The first was, obviously, Narcissa herself, who was now sitting beside the window with a straight posture, looking as elegant as all Blacks did. Beside her was her friend, and fourth year dorm mate, Miranda Parkinson, who, with her squashed nose, had the appearance of someone who had ran into a brick wall multiple times. Sirius never ceased to wonder how the girl had befriended Narcissa, who put a lot of stock in good appearances.

Opposite them were two sixth years, who shared a dorm with Andromeda. The first was Alison Goyle. Sirius supposed she could be considered pretty, with dark hair and deep-set brown eyes, but she was a rather broad girl. The second was Adrienne LeBlanc, who's hair was the same shade as Andromeda's and her eyes were a dazzling blue, which stood out from her tanned skin.

Finally, there was Andromeda, and Sirius masked his relief that at least Andromeda was there and he wasn't stuck with just the other pureblood girls, not that he minded Narcissa at all, but the other three of them were already eyeing him appreciatively.

"I see they got you, Andy," Sirius whispered to Andromeda as he sat himself down beside her, casually using his wand to levitate his trunk into place.

"They wouldn't have if you had followed like you said you would," muttered Andromeda as Sirius put his wand back in his pocket.

"I have a good reason," said Sirius, excitement bubbling under the surface at being able to tell Andromeda, who was eyeing him with a raised brow, about his run ins with a muggleborn and two muggles. "I'll tell you later though, not fit for present company," he said, glancing over at the other occupants of the compartment.

Andromeda nodded, but still looked rather curious. Sirius sat back in his seat lazily and flicked a stray strand of hair from his face.

"It is a good thing I caught you, Si," said Narcissa, coming out of her conversation with Miranda about where to best buy dress robes, "who knows what kind of riff-raff you could have ended up being stuck with," she said, her nose turning up at the very thought.

"I suppose," Sirius said noncommittally. "Who were you actually looking for when you came out of the compartment, Cissy?" he said, taking on a rather teasing tone. "A certain Lucius Malfoy?"

Lucius Malfoy was a Slytherin third year that came from a long line of wealthy purebloods. He and Narcissa had been arranged to be married since she was seven and he was six. Sirius wasn't overly fond of the bloke, but Narcissa had taken a shine to him, so he supposed it was better than the loveless marriage Bellatrix was heading into out of nothing more than duty.

Narcissa didn't blush, as that was not a valued look for Black, but her pale cheeks did get a small pink tinge to them.

"You behave yourself, Sirius Black," Narcissa scolded, but Sirius easily saw the small smile tucked away in the corner of her lips, they grew up together after all.

"Yes, Si, don't tease her," Andromeda added and Sirius looked at her in surprise.

"Thank you, Andy," Narcissa nodded, sniffing indignantly.

"It's not her fault she's in lo-ove," Andromeda continued in the same teasing tone as Sirius had used.

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh as Narcissa huffed and the other girls in the compartment began to giggle. That was until Narcissa shot them a sharp look. It was one thing for them to tease and laugh at each other, but not for someone not in the family to do it too.

The rest of the train ride was rather dull for Sirius, as Narcissa, Miranda, Alison and Adrienne seemed to be content to gossip and point things out in the newest copy of Witch Weekly, which Sirius found terribly tedious. He supposed he at least had Andromeda to talk to, but they could hardly talk freely given their company.

When the witch that sold sweets came by their compartment with a kind "Anything of the trolley, dears?" Sirius and Andromeda were the only ones that bought anything, the rest of the girls were 'watching their weight', which was ridiculous because they were thin enough as it was. To entertain themselves, Sirius and Andromeda began to play a game where they had to eat an every flavour bean every time the other girls used the words "Pureblood" or "Respectable" and the phrase "Did you hear that-?" Unsurprisingly, their sweets were gone quickly.

A few hours later, Sirius left to get changed into his Hogwarts robes in the toilets, leaving the girls to get dressed. As he was making his way back to their compartment, a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately"

Although he didn't show it, as he joined Andromeda in the crowd thronging the corridor, he felt nerves twist in his stomach. As the Black hair, he was well practiced in keeping up a façade, but that didn't help to get rid of his true feelings at all. He wondered if any of his other family members had felt this nervous, he doubted it, they were Slytherins through and through.

Sirius was different from the rest of his relatives, he had always known that. He was cheeky and mischievous and at times downright reckless, not to mention he didn't believe in any of that pureblood superiority nonsense his parents spewed. Then again, Andromeda had gotten into Slytherin with the same beliefs, so surely that meant he would too, right? he wasn't sure he wanted to know what his parents, or Bellatrix for that matter, would do if he didn't follow tradition, although he supposed it would be amusing to see his mother scream like a banshee and the vein on his father's forehead explode.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on a tiny, dark platform. Sirius held himself in his usually confident elegance, despite his worries and the brisk night air.

"Good luck, cousin," Andromeda whispered in his ear and Sirius spared her a smile before she followed Narcissa and the other Slytherin girls to the carriages in the distance.

Sirius looked around, wondering where he was supposed to go as all his family, immediate and otherwise, had all told him about the traditional boat ride all first years took. He was just about considering asking someone, when a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Sirius heard a gruff voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Firs' years!"

He looked up to see that the half giant gamekeeper's big hairy face over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years, follow me!"

Along with the other first years, many of whom were staring at Hagrid with mixed parts awe and dear, clearly not having heard of him, Sirius followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them due to the thick trees that he could barely even see the person in front of him. Nobody spoke much, but Sirius didn't mind, he wasn't all that fond of people, oh he could charm and tease them, but after an extended amount of time he began to get mean.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here"

There was a loud "Oooooh!" and even Sirius couldn't keep his calm exterior and let an awed expression take over.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, it's windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. All the stories he had heard of Hogwarts just couldn't do it any justice.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Sirius was followed into his boat by Lily Evans and a sallow boy with greasy hair, who appeared to be Lily's friend seeing as the pair held an air of familiarity with each other.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then, FORWARD!" and the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass.

"Hey, Lily, who's your friend?" Sirius asked Lily with a smile, the sallow faced boy looked down his hooked nose at Lily in surprise, not having expected them to know each other.

"Hi," Lily grinned. "Sirius, this is Severus Snape, Sev, this is Sirius Black, he helped me and my mum find the platform"

Sirius saw the look of recognition on Snape's face at the mention of his last name, and he looked like he was repressing a sneer. Sirius just raised a dark brow.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm sure," Sirius said, but with a small smirk that made it clear he meant nothing of the sort.

Lily looked between the two boys with a frown before Sirius turned and stared at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.

They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reach a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Sirius couldn't help but snicker slightly as Snape had to grab onto Lily to save himself from slipping, not possessing Sirius' easy grace.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, front door.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid called and after getting muttering of affirmation, raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.


	5. The Sorting of Lily Evans

Chapter Four

_The Sorting of Lily Evans_

Lily used to adore fairy tales. When she was small it was her mother who had read them to her, with her usual serene voice and soft smile, and when she got a little older, it had been her elder sister, Petunia, who read to her. Lily always liked Petunia's readings best as she would do the voices and everything. Then, when she was old enough to read by herself, she would spend hours on end pouring over the pages and imagining what it would be like to live in such a magical world. And now she was here, standing in a castle called Hogwarts, and it was like all her childhood wonderings had come true.

Professor McGonagall had led the first years into a room off of the Entrance Hall and told them to wait.

Lily was extremely excited to get started at school, she had read every single one of her school books at least twice, but with her excitement there was equal part nerves. She had no clue how she was going to get sorted and once she did, what if no one liked her? She prided herself on being a perfectly capable and independent person, just as her dad raised her to be, but she wasn't fond of the idea of spending seven years with people who disliked her.

However, Lily did find comfort in the fact that it seemed she wasn't the only nervous one. Many of the other first years were wringing their hands, their faces pale, and talking worriedly amongst themselves about how they could possibly be sorted.

"You know what I heard?" a messy-haired bespectacled boy spoke up, his voice loud enough to overtake the others. "I heard that you have to fight a dragon and that whatever tactic you use is how you're sorted into your house."

The other first years paled further, one girl nearby Lily looked like she was going to be sick. Even Lily felt her nerves spike, she didn't trust that boy as far as she could throw him based on that troublemaking glint in his eyes. Not to mention he was that horrid boy on the train that had made fun of Severus.

There was a low chuckle from beside her and Lily turned to see it was Sirius Black, the boy who had helped her find the platform. Lily wasn't entirely sure how she felt about him yet, he was nice to her and she felt he could be a great friend, but at the same time he had that spark of mischief in him that Lily wasn't sure what to make of and he seemed to be able to switch from teasing to polite before she could even blink so how was she supposed to know when he was being genuine?

"Do you know how we get sorted?" Lily asked him, noticing how he was laughing at that messy-haired boy rather than being scared witless like the others.

"Why, Lily, of course I do," Sirius smirked and Lily rolled her eyes at his taunting, but she was starting to get used to it.

"Well, care to share?" Lily asked, raising a bow challengingly, she wasn't about to be intimidated by him, even if he did have those dark, aristocratic features that seemed to demand attention.

From her other side, Lily saw Severus give a small sneer towards Sirius. She couldn't understand why he had taken such an instant dislike towards her new friend, it seemed as though as soon as he heard his name that Severus found a reason to dislike him.

"It's all decided by the sorting hat," Sirius said, his voice low so that the other first years wouldn't overhear. Severus tried to look disinterested, but Lily could tell he was listening in on the conversation. "The hat is placed on your head and it can see right inside your mind and decide which house is best for you. My cousin Andromeda reckons it can see the future too."

Lily got a thoughtful look on her face. She supposed that made much more sense than the rumours of duels and tests and troll-fighting that the other first years were sprouting. Lily wasn't keen on the idea of something getting into her innermost thoughts, but she supposed the hat was hardly going to tell her secrets.

"How do you know this?" Lily asked Sirius curiously.

Sirius shrugged lazily, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I'm a Black," he said as though that explained everything.

Lily frowned. She didn't understand what his last name had to do with anything, but Severus clearly did as he rolled his eyes. Lily decided she would just have to ask later.

The door to the chamber opened suddenly. Professor McGonagall had returned.

"Form a line, and follow me," Professor McGonagall told the first years.

Despite now knowing what was about to come thanks to Sirius, Lily still felt a twisting in her gut as she got into line behind Sirius and in front of Severus. They walked out of the chamber, across the giant entrance hall, which Lily was pretty sure she could fit five of her houses in, and then through a pair of double doors to the Great Hall.

Lily had to choke back a gasp as she looked about the strange, splendid hall in awe. Instead of having electric lights, there were thousands of candles that were floating mid-air over four long tables where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

Professor McGonagall led the first years up towards the teacher's table so that they came to halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. Lily fiddled nervously with her robes, her freckled cheeks flushing under the expectant gaze of the other students. Dotted her and there among the students were…ghosts. Shining a misty silver, Lily supposed they mustn't be evil like all the stories said, but Lily couldn't help but look away from them, slightly weary. Instead she looked upward and saw a dark ceiling with a few clouds obscuring the shining stars. Lily had read in Hogwarts, a History that it was bewitched to look like the sky outside.

Professor McGonagall had now placed a three-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a rather old and dirty wizards hat. Lily thought her elder sister might have had a fit at the thought of wearing it, ever the neat-freak and perfectionist.

Lily got rather sad at the thought of her sister. Petunia had been horrible to Lily before she got on the train. Lily knew she was wrong for reading the letter Dumbledore had sent to Petunia, but she had been terribly curious and it didn't make what Petunia said okay. The word freak had been spinning around her head all the way to Hogwarts.

A rip near the brim of the hat, opened and Lily supposed it must have been like the hat's mouth, as it began to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

There were thundering claps from everyone else in the hall as the hat bowed to each of the four tables and then became still, as though it had never moved at all. Lily wasn't sure she would ever get used to these magical things, but Lily thought she didn't really want to. The moment she became used to it all was the moment that she would no longer get that shock of awe and Lily rather liked that feeling.

Professor McGonagall had stepped forward and was holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Joshua!"

A pink-faced boy with a mass of ginger hair walked forward nervously and put on the hat, before sitting down,

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted after a slight pause.

The table on the right, which was decorated with yellow and black, cheered and clapped as Joshua hurried forward.

"Avery, Frederick!"

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted.

Frederick Avery, who had sharp features and brown hair, basically strutted to a table in green and silver. Lily wondered if she would join that table. She knew that Severus wanted her to, but she wasn't sure she was all that cunning or ambitious.

"Black, Sirius!"

Lily watched her new friend walk forward, in an almost confident manner, which Lily wasn't sure how he achieved, and he sat down on the stool as the hat was place on his head. The hat took longer to sort Sirius than it had the other two, and it took almost two minutes for the hat to shout:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Sirius took off the hat and went to the green and silver table. He sat between a white-blonde haired girl and a girl who had similar features to Sirius. The three of them looked completely out of place among the others, beautiful and eye-catching, Lily supposed those girls must be Blacks too.

"Blishwick, Kiara" became the first Ravenclaw, which was the table second from the left with blue and bronze colouring and "Bones, Amelia" became a Hufflepuff and "Burbage, Charity" a Hufflepuff.

"Carter, Florence"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Chang, Dao," a small, Chinese boy, then became another Ravenclaw.

Maybe Lily would end up in Ravenclaw. It would be nice to be in Slytherin, since Sirius was in it and she knew Severus wanted to be too. Hopefully Severus wouldn't mind her being a Ravenclaw, she knew he didn't much like the Gryffindors, shown by his reaction to that messy-haired boy on the train.

"Diggle, Dedalus!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Evans, Lily!"

Lily felt like her insides had frozen as she stumbled out of line and made her way to the four legged stool. She got a glimpse of the other students looking at her before the sorting hat was put on her head and it slipped over her eyes.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear and Lily clutched the sides of the stool with a white-knuckled grip to stop herself from jumping. "Smart, very intelligent indeed, you would do well in Ravenclaw, but what's this? You already have a connection to Slytherin, but no, no, no, that wouldn't do, no not at all. I know, GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the name of her new house to the whole hall. Lily walked shakily to the red and gold table at the far left, which had erupted into cheers for the first time this sorting. Lily looked toward Severus, who was still in the line, and saw that he was looking at her sadly. She then turned to look at Sirius, who, much to her surprise, was already looking at her and he shot her a smile, cheering her slightly. At least she knew he would still be her friend, and Severus would hardly abandon her, they were best friends after all.

"Fawcett, Pandora!" A girl with dirty blonde hair that went all the way down her back practically skipped to the stool to get sorted.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Gudgeon, Davey!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus was a sandy haired boy, thin and weak looking, with a few scars on his pale face. Lily wondered how he could have possibly gotten those scars as he shakily made his way to the stool.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He had beaten Sirius' record, his sorting taking a whole three minutes, before he moved to sit down on the table opposite Lily. She smiled kindly at him as she clapped with the others, and he gave her a timid smile back.

"Lockhart, Gilderoy" a handsome blonde boy, also had the hat on for a long time, but it decided to put him into Ravenclaw. "Macmillan, Patricia" was then sorted into Hufflepuff and after that Lily and Lupin were soon joined at the Gryffindor table by "McDonald, Mary," who was a bushy haired girl with bright blue eyes and "Meadows, Dorcas" a blond haired girl, who looked to be even taller than Remus.

"Mulciber, Malcom," who had an extremely fierce face and mean brown eyes was then sorted into Slytherin, along with "Nott, Abraham" immediately after. "Pettigrew, Peter," who was a terrified looking boy, stout and blond with water blue eyes, then became another Gryffindor and rushed forward to sit by Lupin, looking thoroughly relieved to be sorted. "Podmore, Sturgis" then became a Hufflepuff after just five seconds with the hat on his head.

"Potter, James!"

Potter turned out to be the messy-haired boy that Lily had already taken a disliking to after what he did to Severus. He all but strutted to the chair and the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Potter moved to sit on the other side of Lupin, a grin on his face as he ruffled his hair, having gotten into the house he wanted to.

"Ravenwood, Ophelia" then became another Slytherin.

"Severus, Snape!" was finally called and Lily looked up eagerly as Severus, moved nervously to the stool and the hat was put on his head.

Lily couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe he would get into Gryffindor with her, but a moment later, the hat called:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Lily's shoulders slumped and she looked at her best friend sadly as he went to sit next to Nott and Mulciber at the silver and green table.

"Aww, did your boyfriend not make it?" Potter's voice said teasingly and Lily's gaze snapped towards him with a harsh glare and she didn't even dignify his taunt with a reply.

"Talkalot, Lucinda" became a Slytherin as well and "Trelawney, Sybil" became a Ravenclaw. Then "Vanderhyde, Ethan" became a Hufflepuff, while his twin sister "Vanderhyde, Natalie" became a Slytherin, much to her brother's surprise.

"Vanity, Emma," made it into Gryffindor and the sorting ended just a person later when "Zabini, Emileo," was sorted into Slytherin.

Lily looked up to the head table when she heard someone clear their throat. A rather old wizard with a long white beard, half-moon spectacles, and twinkling blue eyes had gotten to his feet. Lily knew that this was the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who, according to the book she had bought for some light reading, had been appointed headmaster only two years ago when Dippet had retired.

Professor Dumbledore had his arms spread and a beaming smile as though the fact that they were all there was the thing that pleased him most in the world. Lily decided then and there that she would like him, he was nothing like that stern Mrs Fosters at her primary school.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Pop! Hippogriff! Squeak! Lowbow! Thank you!"

He sat back down and everyone clapped and cheered. Lily frowned and clapped slightly in confusion, wondering if she should know what he had meant just then. She was distracted however when a loud gasp from Mary McDonald came from her right.

Lily looked away from Dumbledore and saw immediately what had shocked the other girl. The dishes across the table were now piled high with food. Lily had never seen so much food in her life, not even at gatherings like weddings and such.

She immediately began piling her plate with food and digging in eagerly. It was all very delicious. The food was even better than her mum's, although she supposed she would leave that information out of the letter she would send home.

"You're not still sad that you can't eat are you, Nick?" a third year said a few seats down.

Lily turned to see that he was addressing a ghost in the ruff, who had been eyeing the food sadly as people ate. Lily looked at the ghost curiously, wondering who he could possibly be so that he was haunting the school.

"That's Nearly Headless Nick," Emma Vanity told her, seeing her questioning look. "My older sister Yasmin told me about him, he's the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower, just like the Grey Lady is for Ravenclaw, the Fat Friar for Hufflepuff and the Bloody Baron for Slytherin."

"The Bloody Baron?" Lily repeated, not thinking he sounded very pleasant at all.

"Yep, see?" Emma said, pointing over to the Slytherin table.

The Bloody Baron was a horrible looking ghost with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. Lily thought he looked as though he belonged in a horror movie. She felt particularly sorry for Severus right now, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him.

"Does your sister come to Hogwarts then?" Mary asked Emma curiously as Lily turned away from the horrid ghost.

"No, she's left now, she works at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley. Mum's not at all pleased," said Emma, grimacing slightly. "She keeps saying that Yasmin should work somewhere like the Ministry and it's all her fault for not getting anywhere. She didn't do all that well on her OWLs, see, and even worse on her NEWTs"

"What are they?" Lily asked.

"Oh, are you a muggleborn then?" Dorcas, who had nodded along with what Emma had said, asked.

"Yeah…it doesn't matter does it?" Lily asked, slightly nervous. She had asked Severus the same question, but she didn't want the fact that she was a muggleborn mean she did worse in the classes compared to the others.

"Not to me, but to some people," said Dorcas and Lily frowned when she saw her glance towards the Slytherin table. "Anyway, OWLs and NEWTs are the qualifications you get in fifth and seventh year, my brother's doing his NEWTs this year, my mum and dad have a bet going on, on how long it will take for him to crack under the pressure"

"That's horrible," said Mary, looking horrified at parents betting on their children.

"No, it's all in good fun," said Dorcas flippantly, "Tate's such a drama queen, honestly, he got a fever once and he was convinced he was dying. It had only taken a pepper-up potion to fix him"

When everyone had eaten as much food as they possibly could, the food faded from the plates to be replaced by desert. Even though Lily felt as though she was about to burst she was that full, she still managed to begin to eat some treacle tart, which had always been her favourite.

"I'm muggleborn too," said Mary, as she began to dip strawberries into her rice pudding. "Professor Dingleberry, the Herbology teacher, was the one to tell my parents once I got the letter. Weird things always happened, like my sprouts turning into chips, that sort of thing, but it was still a nasty shock, my mum actually fainted"

"I'm a pureblood. Never really seen a muggle since I live in Hogsmeade," said Dorcas. "I showed my first sign of accidental magic when Tate was picking on me because of my pigtails, a second later there was a flash and I wasn't the only one with that hair style, if you know what I mean."

Lily, Emma and Mary began to laugh at the very idea.

"My first magic scared the living daylight out of my parents," said Emma. "I was climbing a tree with my little brother, Marcus, and I accidently fell, My mum had screamed, but a second later I had floated back up onto the branch, perfectly fine. My parents were so happy they invited the whole family over to celebrate."

"What about you Lily, what was your first accidental magic?" Mary asked.

"I don't remember the very first, but I would always play on the swings at the playground and jump off when I got high enough, but I would just float to the ground. It drove my sister insane, she hated it when I did magic," said Lily and tried to laugh with the others, even though she felt so sad at the mention of her sister, who thought she was such a freak now.

When the deserts had disappeared as the food had, leaving the golden plates glossy and clean again, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The hall fell silent at once, needing no prompting.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is strictly forbidden"

Lily was sure that Dumbledore's twinkling eyes moved in the direction of Potter further down the Gryffindor table, who was grinning. Lily rolled her eyes at him. Lily could tell she wasn't going to get on with that boy at all, he was bad news.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the third week of the term. Anyone, second year and above, interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I would like to give a warm welcome to our new Care Of Magical Creatures Professor, Professor Kettleburn."

Lily clapped with everyone else as a wizard at the head table briefly stood up.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

"Oh no," Mary moaned, flushing almost as red as Lily's hair and she supposed the girl must not like singing. Mary didn't seem to be the only one as the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune, and off we go!" and the school bellowed:

_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_For now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot._

Everybody finished the song at different times and Lily was just glad that the twinkle twinkle tune she had chosen was over rather quick, she couldn't imagine how embarrassing it would be to be the last to stop.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Dumbledore said, beaming. "Now, bed."

The Gryffindor first years followed the prefect, who introduced herself as Molly Prewett, a ginger fifth year, through the chattering crowds. They began to make their way up the marble staircase in the entrance hall as other prefects led the other houses in different directions.

"I just want to get to bed, and sleep for the next ten years," Dorcas groaned and Lily only yawned in response as Mary and Emma leaned heavily on each other, as though too tired to even hold themselves up anymore.

"You have to be careful on the stairs," said Molly Prewett as she helped pull Peter Pettigrew up from a trick step he had fell into. "You have to remember where the trick steps are and if the stairs get bored or know you don't know where you're going, they'll change."

Lily shared a weary glance with Mary at that. With them both being muggleborn they had never heard of stairs that got bored. They were used to things just staying put. The idea that she could be walking to class and then all of a sudden be going in an entirely different direction made Lily rather nervous, what if it made her late for class?

"There's also Peeves, who's the Hogwarts poltergeist, never one to miss taunting the first years," Molly continued, a look of extreme disapproval marring her face when she said this, "no doubt you'll run into him soon."

Lily looked about the corridor worriedly at that, as Potter laughed, almost expecting the poltergeist to come and attack them. She saw no sign of Peeves, but what she did notice was that all the portraits on the walls were moving. One picture of a little ballerina, waved merrily as they passed.

"The pictures are moving," Lily gasped.

Dorcas looked over at her in confusion.

"Well of course they are, you don't expect them to just sit there forever do you?" she asked.

"In the muggle world, people just stay put in pictures," said Mary, eyeing a picture of a mean looking man cautiously as he sneered at her.

"Really?" Emma asked, looking at the two of them questioningly. "They don't move at all?"

Lily and Mary shook their heads.

"Weird," said Dorcas, sounding as though the idea of non-moving pictures was as bizarre to her as this whole school was to Lily.

At the very end of the corridor they were walking down was a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" The Fat Lady said as they came to a stop.

"Holy Hippogriffs" said Molly.

Lily took a step back in surprise when the portrait swung open like a door, to reveal a large, round hole in the wall. They all moved through it, Peter Pettigrew needing a bit of help, and were met with the sight of the Gryffindor common room.

It reminded Lily of her grandparents' house, with its cosy atmosphere and squashy red armchairs.

"This is where you will spend the majority off your time between classes, or else you decide to go out onto the grounds," Molly told them as she gestured around the room. "The girls' dorms are on the right and the boys' dorms on the left. And just be warned, no boy will be allowed up into the girls' section."

Lily, Dorcas, Emma and Mary made their way up to the top of a spiral staircase and entered their dorms. These too were decorated with red and gold. There were four four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains, which matched the plush carpet in the centre of the room. Their trunks had been bought up to the room already and were situated at the end of each bed.

Too tired to do much else, they all pulled on their pyjamas and muttered "Night," as they curled up in bed, Lily's white kitten, Calla, snuggled into her side.

Lily couldn't wait for the day to start tomorrow, the whole concept of magic fascinated her. She only hoped that she would have some classes with Severus and Sirius. Her last thought was that she would have to compare time-tables with the two Slytherins tomorrow, before she relaxed further into her duvet and fell asleep.


	6. Day of a Slytherin Bloodtraitor

Chapter Five

_Through the Eyes of a Slytherin Bloodtraitor_

When Sirius was little, he was very different to how he is now. Not in the way that all children are different to their eleven year old selves, but in a way that his very core seemed to be rewritten. Vividly does he remember the time when he would soak up everything his parents and other family members ever told him, never doubting for a second that they were telling the truth, having that unflinching devotion to his family that all little kids have, and eager to learn more in order to make them proud.

That had all changed when he was just eight years old.

The ancestral home to the noble and most ancient house of Black is situated in central London, number twelve Grimmauld place to be exact. Even though most of the people living in the area were muggles, Sirius had never come into contact with one, the most he got was the occasional glimpse of a thing called a car through the windows, which his mother kept sealed shut. However, despite the abundance of muggles, there were plenty of hidden wizarding shops all about the town, in small alcoves, at the back of mundane looking stores and at the end of dark alleyways.

One day when Sirius had been walking to such a shop with his uncle Alphard (his mother's elder brother) a strange black and white ball had rolled over and come to a stop just in front of him. Sirius had stared down at it in confusion, stepping away slightly so that it wouldn't touch the hem of his robes, and wondered what on earth it could be. It was about the size of a Quaffle, but he had never seen a ball like that before. A boy around Sirius' age had quickly come up to them, panting slightly from the run, and had grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry about that," he had said easily and Sirius just blinked.

"It's alright, son," his uncle Alphard had said, crouching down to pick up the strange ball and hand it back to the boy, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder for good measure.

"Thanks mister!" the boy had grinned, before quickly running off. Sirius stared after him, and it took his uncle starting to walk again to snap him out of it.

"That was a muggle!" Sirius exclaimed with wide silver eyes, running to catch up with the man. His uncle just nodded, raising his brows down at Sirius and awaiting what he was going to say next. "You touched him, that means your contain-cotima-contam-"

"Contaminated?" Uncle Alphard asked and Sirius nodded, recognising the word that had once come out of his mother's mouth. His uncle gave a small laugh of amusement, shocking Sirius slightly. It wasn't often he heard such a happy sound. "My dear boy, I'm hardly contaminated. Tell me something, just looking at that boy now, what difference does he have to you?"

Sirius opened his mouth to spew out everything his mother had taught him to say on such a subject, but uncle Alphard held up a hand to stop him before he had even got one word out.

"And I don't want anything that your parents have told you, I want your opinion. How is he different to you?" he asked.

Sirius looked over his shoulder at the boy and saw that he was kicking the ball to some other children, his brown eyes were dancing and a huge grin split apart his face. Sirius tried to force himself into thinking about all his parent's teachings, that muggles are filthy, vile creatures who are nothing but scum that contaminate the earth and curse the wizarding world into hiding, but as he looked at that laughing boy, playing so freely, he just couldn't see it. The boy was so innocent. Innocence was the first that was taken from a child in the Black family. There was no place for innocence in a world full of monsters.

"He's happier," Sirius had answered softly.

Uncle Alphard had looked down on him with a sympathetic smile, but hiding behind it was a pride at being able to get through to his nephew.

"Come on, let's go," uncle Alphard said and put a hand on Sirius' shoulder to apparate them away. Instead of going to a shop that traded illegal potions ingredients like his father had insisted they do, uncle Alphard had taken him to a joke shop, and their sparked his love of mischief.

Since that day, Sirius had been questioning his families morals. He did it aloud at first, voicing his doubts, but from swift punishment he soon learned to keep them quiet, hone his skills of manipulation and act like the Slytherin heir everyone expected him to be. This was the reason Sirius had been so looking forward to Hogwarts, it was a chance to make it on his own. Interact with those he had been curious about since he was only eight years old. Granted, being sorted into Slytherin meant that he had to continue his façade and try not to voice his opinions too much, not that it would stop him from speaking up if asked directly, he may be a Slytherin, but his pride and courage much outweighed his self-preservation.

Sirius knew the social hierarchy in Slytherin like the back of his hand, he had been living it all his life after all, so he wasn't at all surprised as fellow students began to find allies and not friends. In Slytherin how mean you were, how rich you were and how pure you were decided how high up you were on the hierarchy. Just by being a Black Sirius was already near the top, the Blacks seeming somewhat above all the other students with a strange, wicked and unobtainable perfection. Sirius didn't pay much mind to such things, but he couldn't pretend not to notice how people stopped and just stared in the hallways as he, Andromeda and Narcissa walked about with their casual elegance.

Fellow first years, Mulciber, Avery and Nott, quickly formed an alliance, all seeming to be as mean and prejudice as each other. By the sixth day of school Sirius had already seen them hex a student just for being muggleborn, no doubt having been taught the curses early by a tutor, just as Sirius had been. Severus Snape was also seen with the three of them a lot, throwing in comments about the Dark Arts to get into their good graces. Sirius took a disliking to all four of them almost instantaneously, especially Snape as he talked about Mudbloods with the other three. Sirius had half a mind to point out that he was friends with a muggleborn, if only to see the greasy git squirm as he tried to talk his way out of that one, but the fact that he actually liked Lily held him back. He knew it wouldn't be just Snape that paid for the jibes.

It wasn't just Snape who was trying to manipulate himself some allies. Sirius had watched with calculating eyes as Natalie Vanderhyde wrapped Lucinda Talkalot and a few older Slytherins right around her finger. Sirius was impressed with the skill, but also rather surprise. It was well known that the Vanderhyde's were an open and loving Bloodtraitor family and to see Natalie likes that just showed people can go bad even in the lightest families. Sirius decided he would have to keep an eye on her, he didn't want her to be able to get the upper hand over him at any point.

However, there was one first year in his house that Sirius actually found himself liking. Emileo Zabini was unlike any other pureblood Slytherin Sirius had ever met. The Italian boy was rather self-preserving as was expected of a snake, but he seemed indifferent to blood statuses and he had a rather fumbling, sarcastic character. Sirius seemed to click quickly with Emileo, his funny personality complimented Sirius' cold wit and carelessly mean comments perfectly.

The only other friend Sirius had in his year was Lily Evans, his muggleborn friend. Unlike Snape, who seemed to spend his time looking over at the red and gold table mournfully, Sirius wasn't in the least bit surprised that strong, opinionated Lily Evans didn't get sorted into Slytherin. Sure, it would have been nice if she had been, but the pureblood Slytherins would have eaten her alive.

The first Friday of the term was a special day for Sirius and Emileo as it documented the day they had managed to find the Great Hall without asking anyone for help, or walking there with Sirius' cousins or Emileo's older sister, Maria Zabini, who didn't seem to like her little brother at all. Well, at first she seemed rather indifferent about it, but when Peeves jumped out of the suit of armour that Sirius swears tried to grab him on their second day and grabbed her nose shouting "Got your conk!" she seemed to think being around first years was more trouble than it was worth.

As he ate at the Slytherin table, Sirius watched his friend with a look of amusement. Emileo was frowning in concentration, his wand pointing at a match in front of him and he flicked it, muttering the incantation they were taught just yesterday. Emileo then appraised the match critically, but began to mutter angrily in Italian when he saw that the match showed no sign at all that it was going to become a needle.

"I'm guessing you're not too keen on Transfiguration?" Sirius asked, his upper lip quirking in a smile.

Emileo glared at him, before beginning to pile food onto his empty golden plate, seeming to give up on trying to transfigure the match.

"Do I look like the kind of person who wastes time turning goats into pin cushions?" he asked dryly.

"Actually," Sirius said, "McGonagall specifically said that we wouldn't be doing animal transfigurations until-" Emileo cut him off with a rather rude hand gesture and Sirius chuckled.

Unlike Emileo's apparent hatred of the subject, Sirius found himself rather fond of Transfiguration. He discovered that the subject came easily to him, despite being one which his parents had deemed useless, probably because they couldn't use it to harm or intimidate people, and was the only one who had managed to turn his match into a needle, earning ten points for Slytherin and a rare smile.

As a matter of fact, Sirius proved himself to be an exceptionally bright student, who did well in all the lessons they had thus far. This included Herbology, which was held in the greenhouses with the Ravenclaws and elderly Professor Dingleberry, studying all the different magical plants and their uses, though according to Bellatrix he wouldn't be getting to the more interesting (and dangerous) plants for another few years. Then there was astronomy, which Sirius sailed through, having spent large amount of times just looking at the sky and spotting members of his family amongst the stars. Finally there was Charms, which was taught by tiny professor Flitwick (A half goblin wizard, who Sirius had heard of only though his family sneering over 'half-breeds') and Sirius found the lesson a lot of fun, and even managed to levitate Snape off of his seat, which he got away with by claiming his aim slipped.

However, the final subject he had had so far was History of Magic, which proved to be a complete waste of time as Sirius could hardly even keep his eyes open. Droning on, Professor Binns seemed to have the unique ability to make even the bloodiest of war and rebellions extraordinarily dull. Sirius was pretty sure even his tutor's lectures on blood purity were more interesting.

Suddenly there came a loud rustling and, looking up, Sirius saw that the owls had arrived to deliver post. he spotted his own owl almost at once. Peverall circled the Great Hall once before he swooped down and landed beside Sirius on the Slytherin table.

"Thanks, boy," Sirius said, stroking his feathers and removing the three letters from his leg. Peverall hooted affectionately and, after taking a gulp of pumpkin juice and a nibble of Emileo's toast, took off again.

Sirius looked down at the mail he had received. All the letters were on expensive parchment, tied with a black silk ribbon and the wax seal that was adorned with the Black family crest, so he knew they were from family members.

Opening the one on the top of the small pile, he found that the first was from his parents.

Sirius had written to his parents the day after the sorting, knowing that it was expected of him. He informed them that he was in Slytherin and had made friends with Emileo, but he explicitly didn't mention Lily. He also casually threw in that he hadn't formed an alliance with Mulciber, Avery or Nott because they were with Severus Snape, who, Sirius realised on the second day of school when Snape mentioned his mother, was a half blood. Snape was acting like a pureblood around the rest of the house so Sirius kept the information to himself, knowing he could use it to his advantage one day, Blacks were excellent at holding things over people. Anyway, Sirius knew that it would stop his mother nagging him to make alliances with them as he avidly recalled his mother's scandalised voice at Eileen Prince marrying a muggle, something that still bothered her after so many years (apparently the two went to school together, even sharing a dorm)

_Dear Sirius,_

_Congratulations on getting into Slytherin. We are very pleased to see that you are upholding the family tradition and not bringing the Black name any shame and must insist you continue at this standard. _

_We have heard much of the Zabini family and approve in the choice in friends. There hasn't been a close alliance between the Blacks and the Zabini's in at least three generations so it is a welcome change. As for Mulciber, Avery and Nott, we don't blame you in the slightest for not wanting to associate yourself with them if they allow the presence of that half-blood boy. After what Eileen did I'm surprised any respecting Slytherin would even look at the boy. _

_We expect to receive word soon about your lessons and how you are progressing. Make sure you work exceptionally hard in everything, but most especially Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, granted you would benefit more from learning the Dark Arts themselves rather than defend yourself against them, but it is nothing a bit of extra tutelage at home won't fix._

_Keep us updated on your progress,_

_Mother and Father_

Sirius' lips turned up into the smallest of smirks. It appeared that his parents had taken his letter just as he wanted to. he wasn't particularly surprised, he was an expert in telling people what they wanted to hear, he had been teaching himself to do so since he was eight years old after all.

Sirius opened the next letter.

_Dear Si, _

_Cousin, it is good to see that you are following in the footsteps of all the Blacks before you, not that I ever had any doubt, you are too much like me to have been any different. You shall have to tell me of any trouble you get into, I know that when I was first at Hogwarts I got an endless amount of detentions for hexing those below me, Salazar knows why the professors even cared. I heard it's only going to get worse now that old fraud Dumbledore has been appointed Headmaster._

_I look forward to hearing how you do in your lessons, particularly Defence Against the Dark Arts. I know from your spell work at home that you will simply excel in duels. It will be very useful in the future. There are things coming, things I know you shall be perfect for. I won't say more, but just wait cousin, our superior blood may be recognised by everyone soon enough. _

_My mother and Father have set a date for mine and Rod's wedding. It is the 19__th__ December, meaning all the family will be in attendance seeing as it is during the Christmas holiday. The after part will be held at Grimmauld Place so no doubt you will be seeing a lot of me over the holidays. _

_Hex some Mudbloods for me, cousin._

_Bellatrix_

Sirius rolled his eyes at the letter, but there was a look of reluctant fondness on his face. It was Bellatrix all over, wanting to know the mischief he got up to through the dark ways she could appreciate. Sirius wasn't particularly happy at the thought of all his extended family and fellow purebloods being at Grimmauld Place after the wedding, but he was well versed in knowing how to suppress his contempt for them.

He put Bellatrix's letter to the side with his parent's and opened the final one.

_To Si,_

_What's Hogwarts like? Are the lessons good? Bella told me that you have to take a boat ride and avoid getting viciously attacked by the giant squid, is that true? _

_You have to tell me about all your lessons so that I know what to expect when I go, that way I can be so far ahead of everyone they'll have no choice but to be impressed. Mother and father say that Transfiguration is useless, but you can tell me about it anyway. What about Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts? They sound by far the most interesting, maybe you can teach me some when you come home, our Tutor won't go past the basics and it's beginning to aggravate me. I'm nine years old, I'm not a baby. _

_Mother is boasting about you getting sorted into Slytherin. I'm proud of you! I shouldn't say it, but I was half expecting you to get into Gryffindor or something. What's the common room like? Is that Zabini character okay? _

_Write back soon, I want to hear everything about Hogwarts, absolutely everything, and it's getting rather dull with only having Kreature to talk to. Nothing much is really happening at home. You know cousin Pollux who married that French woman Estelle? Well he's gravely ill and we all know why. _

_Regulus_

Sirius smiled at his little brother's letter. Regulus was as much a Black as everyone but he seemed to manage to retain that tiny sliver of innocence the rest of them had lost an age ago. Innocence is the first thing that is destroyed in the Black family and many say the next to go is sanity.

Sirius shook his head at his parting words. It was true, everyone did know why. Estelle had been poisoning Pollux on the sly for years, hoping to kill him quietly to inherit the fortune, but no one said anything. Pollux was a cruel man who beat Estelle and their children, Antoinette and Henri, and while a beating wasn't uncommon in the Black family it was usually only served as a punishment, unlike Pollux who did it for no reason other than his own enjoyment, and everyone knew that that the only way for Estelle to have any power in the patriarchal society was to be a widow.

Pulling out a quill and spare bit of parchment, Sirius hastened to write a reply that he could take to the Owlery later on.

_Dear Little King,_

_Hogwarts is brilliant!_

_The moving staircases get a bit confusing at times, but most of the time with Andy and Cissy so it's not like I get lost all that often. I had a run in with Peeves the Poltergeist and I don't know why everyone's so bother by him, I think he's really funny, but then that might be because he was pranking Emileo's sister Maria and not me. _

_The giant squid doesn't attack you, that's just Bella telling lies again, you know you can't trust anything that comes out of her mouth, she's like a living, breathing manipulation. It just sort of swims about in the lake. You can see it from the common room windows sometimes since the dungeons are below the lake. _

_Speaking of the common room, to get in you have to say a password and then go down a small passageway. The common room reminds me a lot of the parlour at home actually. The furniture is dark and adorned with snakes and skills and the room has a sort of green glow because of the lake out of the windows._

_The dorms are good, except I have to share with Mulciber, Avery, Nott and Snape. I absolutely hate them, but I'm not so stupid as to get on their bad side, it's hard enough with the rest of the school looking down on Slytherins without being on the outs with your own house. When you get into Slytherin you'll see them for yourself, you'll probably hate them as much as I do, trust me. then again, you were always better at working people like them to your advantage that I was so maybe you'll deal better. _

_Anyway, the sound of the lake is really peaceful at night, lets you fall asleep straight away. _

_The lessons are good so far, well except History of Magic, which is terribly dull. I haven't had Potions or Defence yet, but as soon as I do I will make sure to right you all about them. Of course I will teach you everything! You're going to be the best First Year Hogwarts has ever seen. _

_Don't tell mother and father, but the sorting hat actually considered putting me in Gryffindor, but it must have seen my Black heritage and cunning personality and decided Slytherin was the best option. Thank Merlin. Mother and Bellatrix would have gutted me if it was anything else. _

_Of course it's dull with Kreature! The little twerp does nothing but praise mother (I swear I caught him practically snogging a pair of her boots once). _

_Well, I don't particularly give a damn about cousin Pollux. We'll be well shot of him if you ask me. what else have you been doing while I've been gone? Played Quidditch much? I'm so annoyed that first years aren't allowed brooms. It's not like mother really approves of them all that much anyway, but I'm sure father could have convinced her otherwise._

_Write back soon,_

_Sirius_

Stuffing all the letters into his satchel, which was made from expensive dragon hide since Blacks had to have the best of the best, Sirius returned to his breakfast. As he nibbled on the edge of a hash brown he looked up at Emileo, who had been oddly quiet compared to his usual incessant chatter. The Italian boy was hidden behind a copy of The Daily Prophet, the cover of which was showing the Tornadoes recent win of the Chudley Cannons, the latter of which only scored ten points to the Tornadoes' four hundred and twenty. There was a moving picture of the Tornadoes seek, who was a very pretty witch, holding the snitch triumphantly and winking at the camera.

"Anything interesting?" Sirius asked absently.

Emileo folded The Daily Prophet up and placed it beside his goblet also returning to his breakfast now that he has finished reading.

"There's been another muggle family death, them and their muggleborn daughter," Emileo replied, not seeming at all fazed by the attack, but with the Slytherin pureblood families such thing was the norm.

"Really?" Sirius said, his brows drawing together in thought. "That's the third one this month"

Emileo only nodded, but also looked rather curious at all the attacked. Sirius suddenly recalled what Bellatrix had written in her letter: '_There are things coming. Things I know you shall be perfect for. I won't say more, but just wait cousin, our superior blood may be recognised by everyone soon enough'_. Sirius tried to guess what this could mean and had an inkling it had something do with 'The Dark Lord; he had heard being mentioned in passing, but decided that he wouldn't know more until he went home for Christmas, so he simply shook his head and sighed.

"What have we got today?" he asked.

"Err," Emileo pulled out his wrinkled timetable from his robe pocket. He looked at it for a moment before saying, "Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors"

Sirius smiled and nodded. He was happy to know that he had two lessons with the Gryffindors. It meant that he would have some lessons with Lily. She had told him earlier in the week when they first compared timetables that she would sit with Snape in Potions and with him in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was a good thing Lily wasn't a Hufflepuff as Slytherin had no lessons with them, he suspected it was because the teachers felt only the indifferent Ravenclaw and Strong Gryffindors could deal with them.

"We better get going, if we turn up late who knows who we could end up sitting with," Emileo said, glancing over at Mulciber, Avery, Nott and Snape, who were snickering at a small Hufflepuff who had tripped over someone's bag on her way out of the hall.

Sirius nodded and quickly grabbed his things.

When the two of them got down to the Potions room, which was situated in the dungeons not far from their common room, it was to find that most of the other Slytherins and the Gryffindors were already down there. Lucinda Talkalot perked up when she saw the two of them, beginning to giggle. Sirius and Emileo shared an eye roll, the girl had been doing that all week. However, a moment later Natalie Vanderhyde said something to the girl that curse her to flush in shame and cease her giggling. Sirius raised a brow in her direction and Vanderhyde on smirked slyly in his direction.

Sirius surveyed the rest of the crowd lazily and eventually his gaze came to a stop on Lily. She was talking to her fellow Gryffindor girls, Sirius didn't bother to remember their names, but he knew that if he was going to be spending more time with Lily he would have to attempt to be at least on civil terms with them. Sirius caught Lily's eye and smiled and she paused momentarily in her conversation to grin back.

"I can't believe you of all people are friends with a muggleborn," Emileo laughed, but he was smart enough to do it lowly so that Vanderhyde and Talkalot didn't overhear.

"Why, what's wrong with that, Leo?" Sirius asked, his expression was detached but there was an edge to his voice that hadn't been there before.

Emileo raised his eyebrows.

"Just that you're a Black. 'S funny is all. I bet you're the first Black to befriend a muggleborn in centuries," Emileo replied, shrugging, not seeming the least bit fazed by Sirius' shift in mood, having become somewhat accustomed by Sirius' ability to change between dispositions quickly enough to give you whiplash.

Sirius nodded, accepting this, but he didn't apologise for assuming the worst, for assuming that Emileo was about to be derogatory about Muggleborns. Blacks don't apologise and it wasn't like Emileo didn't know why he had jumped to such a conclusion, he was a pureblood too after all, not as high up as the Blacks mind, but still pureblood.

The Potions Master, and Head of Slytherin House, Professor Slughorn, arrived at the classroom at the same time as Mulciber, Avery, Nott and Snape. Sirius looked at Lily when she smiled at the latter, who didn't even acknowledge her in front of his new 'friends' and he frowned at the hurt that flashed on Lily's face. He couldn't even begin to fathom how Lily could be friends with such a brown-nosing git.

"Come along, come along," Slughorn called jovially as he entered the room, gesturing for them all to follow him. "I want you all to pick a seat, but make sure it's mixed houses!"

His last words got similar reactions from each house, the lot of them groaning and sneering at the opposite house. Sirius and Emileo just shared a look, shrugged and moved to sit beside a Gryffindor, neither particularly caring. Sirius ended up beside scarred Remus Lupin and Emileo beside a pudgy boy that Sirius couldn't recall the name of.

"Potions has got little to do with wands, a more subtle magic that is to do with precise preparations of ingredients and the ability to properly follow instructions, of course many of the best potion makers are those who stray from the rules," – Slughorn gave a laugh here – "Today we will be making a simple boil curing potion. Can anyone tell me the key ingredients?"

Immediately Snape's hand went into the air and not soon later so did Lily's.

"Yes, my boy, you have an answer?" Slughorn smiled, looking at Snape.

"The key ingredients to such a potion is dried nettles, snake fangs, horned slugs, and porcupine quills," Snape recited in a drawling voice that had the messy haired bespectacled boy that was sitting behind him and Lily to roll his eyes.

"Correct, of course, take ten points for Slytherin," Slughorn said. "For another ten can you tell me a bit about the potion?"

There was hardly even a paused before Snape answered, "It is an effective remedy against pustules, hives, boils and many other scrofulous conditions. It is a robust potion of powerful character. You should be careful when brewing because if prepared incorrectly the potion is known to cause boils rather than cure them"

"Excellent, Excellent, ten more points as promised," Slughorn said happily, beaming and Snape looked extremely smug by the praise, seeming to inflate further when he received a proud smile from Lily and Sirius tilted his head, saving that small facet.

"Everyone collect their ingredients and we'll be working in pairs to get the potions brewed. The best ones will be saved and given to Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing," Slughorn said and after a nod there was a huge scraping of chairs as everyone got to their feet to get the ingredients.

Sirius returned to the desk before Lupin, who looked to having a hushed conversation with the messy haired Gryffindor at the store cupboard, so quickly set up the cauldron and began to slice up the Pungous Onions finely. When Lupin sat back down, he glanced at what Sirius was going before beginning to crush the snake fangs.

Not soon later Sirius reached across Lupin to add the crushed snake fangs into the cauldron and stir, before putting the Pungous Onions in also and heating it. Lupin then added the dried nettles, which hadn't need any preparation. As he did this he noticed that Lupin was glancing at him periodically and biting his lip, before he would quickly glance away to pretend he had never looked. Sirius finally had enough of this when he added a dash of flobberworm mucus and was stirring the potion vigorously.

He was the one who looked at Lupin this time, who quickly avoided his gaze and instead pretended to be fully focused on adding a sprinkle of powdered ginger root to the potion so that Sirius could stir vigorously again.

"You're nervous," Sirius said. It wasn't a question.

Lupin seemed startled that Sirius had initiated a conversation and looked up at him with wide brown eyes. Sirius tilted his head in a rather dog-like fashion to regard the Gryffindor curiously. Despite the wide doe-eyes, there seemed to an aura of darkness about the scarred boy, not the level of darkness that all Blacks emitted, but…something, and it intrigued Sirius to know end.

"What makes you say that?" Lupin said evasively, shifting slightly in his seat.

Sirius raised a brow.

"Would you like a list?" he asked. "For starters, there's the lip biting, and the fact that you keep glancing at me but pretending not to, there's also the avoidance of eye contact and finally, answering a question with another question? Rooky mistake, that just seems more suspicious"

Lupin looked utterly shocked at Sirius' analysis of his behaviour and shifted uncomfortably again. He added the pickled Shrake spines. If Lupin thought this was going to distract Sirius he thought wrong as he didn't even have to look away from the boy to stir the potion (gently as to not overexcite the Shrake spines). Sirius had made this potion no less that twenty times, his Tutor back home having had him to repeat it over and over until he got it perfect, he was pretty sure he could do this with his eyes closed.

"It's just- well, It's that – my friend – err –" Lupin stuttered and Sirius found his lips tilting up in an amused smirk.

"It's that I'm a Black, isn't it?" Sirius said it like it was a question, but it was more of an acknowledgement of what he knew to be true.

Lupin hesitated for a moment before he nodded. Sirius just hummed and nodded, turning back to the potion to add a glut of stewed horned slugs. Sirius wasn't surprised that it was the reason why as he was all too used to it. When one was a Black you were met with either fear, adoration, respect or hatred. The potion turned a blue colour it said it was supposed to be in the book, now all he had to do was wait for the potion to begin to emit a pink smoke so that he could wave his wand over the potion and it would be complete.

Out of the corned of his eye he could see Lupin was eyeing him with a deep curiosity as he cleaned up some of the left over ingredients, but Sirius didn't say anything more, he rather enjoyed the mystery that seemed to surround him in regards to the Gryffindor.

Sirius leaned back casually in his chair and glanced at Emileo, who was situated at a desk behind him. he didn't seem to be having at all the same luck as Sirius had, easily completing the potion with the quiet, studious Gryffindor. Emileo was looking rather frazzles, snatching an ingredient away from his Gryffindor partner to stop him from doing something wrong. The stout Gryffindor seemed to be alternating between looking down at the cauldron in complete panic and glancing, terrified, at Emileo.

Emileo seemed to sense his staring and looked up. 'Kill me,' he mouthed, nodding toward the Gryffindor.

Sirius gave his friend his best smirk. 'And go to Azkaban? Not on your life,' he mouthed back, making his friend glare at him, before he quickly became distracted by the Gryffindor adding something into the potion that made it begin to hiss.

"Excellent, excellent," a jaunty voice said and Sirius turned to see that Slughorn was examining his and Lupin's potion closely, a beaming smile on his face. Sirius kept his expression blank but inwardly grimaced, the man was much to cheerful for his liking. "Brewed perfectly, this will be one for the hospital wing, eh? What're your names then, my boys?"

Lupin glanced at Sirius, who just quirked an eyebrow telling him that it would be him that would be answering.

"Err…Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, sir," Lupin said rather quietly.

Slughorn's brows almost disappeared into his receding hair line and was looking at Lupin with an extremely strange expression. Sirius noted it as something to look into, especially seeing as it made Lupin shift in his seat and flush to travel up the back of his scarred neck.

"A Black, eh?" Slughorn exclaimed, turning to Sirius so that Lupin relaxed now the scrutiny was off of him. "Taught many of your lot in my day, all of them in my house of course" – he chuckled here – "I was especially close to your aunt Lucretia Black, though I suppose it's Prewett now. Brilliant potions maker in her day, what's she up to nowadays?" he asked.

"Azkaban," Sirius said shortly, only just stopping his lips from quirking upward when he saw the uncomfortable look on the professor's face and rather alarmed one on Lupin's.

"Oh, that's too bad, she was such a talented young lady, very intelligent," Slughorn said, sighing heavily.

Sirius just nodded. He decided not to point out that his father's younger sister had clearly decided to use her intelligence to point three muggleborn co-workers in the Ministry. Slughorn moved on after that and Sirius heard him awarding points to Lily and Snape, who seemed to have come up with a way to make the potion even more potent.

There was a sudden explosion behind him and Sirius whipped around to see an acrid green smoked surrounding where Emileo and his partner were standing. When the smoke cleared Sirius grimaced. Boils were propping up on their skin, both of them groaning in pain.

"Oh, dear me!" Slughorn exclaimed, waving his wand to get rid of the smoke and rushing over. "Mr Snape did say in the beginning to brew it carefully. Can someone escort them to the hospital wing?"

Sirius and Lupin both volunteered, so Sirius supposed Lupin must be a friend of the stout Gryffindors. When they got to the hospital wing, having gotten some not at all helpful directions from a portrait of an old hag, and some very helpful directions from the Bloody Baron, who seemed to set the two Gryffindor's nerves on edge, Madame Pomfrey bustled over quickly and set the two boil covered boy on two separate beds. She then shooed Sirius and Lupin away, gathering potions from her store and muttering, "there's some every year."

With Emileo in the Hospital Wing, Sirius went down to dinner on his own and sat beside his cousin Andromeda. Looking down the table Sirius smiled and shook his head when he saw that Narcissa was subtly smirking and talking softly to a very smug looking Lucius Malfoy, who was all but basking in the impressed and envious looks he was getting from his fellow Slytherins for getting a girl of such high status and a Black no less.

"Where's Leo?" Andromeda asked when he began to fill his plate with the delicious Hogwarts food; it was even better than what Kreature cooked.

"The hospital wing. He got stuck with a Gryffindor who can't tell his cauldron from his desk," Sirius relied, snorting derisively and shaking his head. Andromeda grimaced in sympathy. "Where've you just come from?"

"Muggle Studies," Andromeda said.

Sirius nodded, taking a bite of his food.

He was the only member of the family that knew Andromeda took Muggle Studies as an option. She had told Uncle Cygnus and Aunt Druella that she was taking Ancient Runes, but she had been ordering the Muggle Studies text books on the sly since third year.

"We learnt about telephones today. It's this thing that runs on electricity, which is kind of like muggle's magic as I understand it, and they use it to talk to each other at long distances," Andromeda said, eyes lighting up with interest at the subject, but a moment later she sighed. "I don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad"

Sirius sighed too at that, but didn't answer, just continued to eat. Andromeda was silent for a time too, before she suddenly perked up at something behind Sirius and spoke up again. She leaned forward so that she could talk to Sirius in a hushed whisper across the table.

"See him there, with the brown hair talking to Arthur Weasley?" she asked hurriedly.

Sirius turned and followed Andromeda's dark eyed gaze.

Arthur Weasley was a fifth year with fiery red hair, freckled and glasses. Sirius knew he was the son of Septimus and Cedrella, as Cedrella Weasley nee Black had been disowned for marrying a Bloodtraitor. The only things Sirius knew about Arthur himself though was what he had learned from Lucius' angry mutterings, which included that he was oddly obsessed with muggles. Even now he seemed to be questioning the boy Andromeda was looking at about something called a 'leaf blower'. The brown haired boy didn't seem all that impressive. He was of average height and build with a heart shaped face, dull brown eyes and rather large ears.

"What about him?" Sirius asked in bewilderment, looking at the boy with slight disdain that made his resemblance to Bellatrix uncanny.

"That's Ted Tonks, I sit next to him in charms," she replied sounding utterly thrilled at this fact.

"So?" Sirius frowned.

"_So_," Andromeda repeated in a frustrated tone that suggested Sirius was entirely missing the point, "he's a muggleborn, and he's funny and nice, so that means it's not just a fluke about your friend Lily. He sits next to me in charms and he was telling me about his Aunt, who had gotten completely drunk of this muggle think called vodka and she-"

Sirius studied his favourite cousin as she regaled the story Ted Tonks had told her, his disdain for the boy disappearing with each passing second. Andromeda's eyes were lit up in a way that Sirius had never seen before, which made her for once look completely different to her elder sister, her pale cheeks were slightly flushed and there was a smile playing on her lips that she didn't even seem to be aware of.

"You like him," it wasn't a question.

Andromeda abruptly stopped talking and she looked at Sirius with wide eyes, the flush on her pale cheeks growing ever so slightly.

"I do not!" she exclaimed, leaning back.

"You so do!" Sirius laughed, pointing at her. "You've got that look on your face!"

"What look?" Andromeda asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes.

"The love-struck look. You look like Kreature does when my mother talks to him, not to mention you've got that smile on your face," Sirius explained.

Andromeda's hand darted up to her mouth and she touched her lips with her fingertips, looking utterly surprised when she did indeed find a smile on her face. Andromeda was silent for a moment, looking rather thoughtful, before her eyes widened again, making her look rather horrified.

"Merlin," she breathed. "I like him"

Sirius just nodded, already knowing that.

"What am I going to do?" she hissed, panicked.

"About what?" he asked in confusion.

Andromeda sighed in aggravation and gave him a look that told him she thought it should have been obvious.

"About the fact that I like Ted. My parents will kill me, not to mention Bella and your parents and grandma Irma. They'll disown me for sure," Andromeda's cheeks were flushed for an entirely different reason now.

"I don't know what to tell you, Andy," was all Sirius could say in response.

After dinner, Sirius made his way to Defence Against the Dark Arts. True to her word, Lily sat beside Sirius this lesson, and Emileo, fresh from the hospital wing, sat on his other side, barely even batting an eyelid at the Gryffindor's presence. Defence Against the Dark Arts was something Sirius was most looking forward to, having been told by his Tutor that he already excelled at the art of duelling. However, his eagerness was short lived.

Professor Gilchrist was strict, verging on cruel, and seemed to only want to focus on the theory of the subject and whenever anyone asked her about anything to do with real life she gave a little shriek, turned pink and quickly changed the subject. The only thing that made the lesson even semi-tolerable was the amusement he got from the fact that the woman seemed to hold an unreasonable amount of hatred for the cocky, messy haired boy who had clearly warned Lupin away from his family during potions.

"What is the incantation of the disarming spell? Mr Potter?" Professor Gilchrist asked with a deceivingly pleasant smile.

"Expelliamus?" Potter replied lazily.

"Wrong. Mr Snape?"

"Expelliarmus?" Snape asked, slightly hesitantly at giving the same answer she had said was wrong before.

"Correct!" she said, turning to write something on the chalk board behind her, more than likely the effects of the disarming spell.

Potter's turned around to look at Lupin and raised his arms in a 'what the hell?' gesture and Sirius, Emileo and Lily all snorted quietly into their notes. Snape shot an extremely smug look in Potter's direction at being preferred over the golden boy and Potter scowled back at him.

"That was cruel, but he deserves to be taken down a peg," Lily commented quietly as she moved her quill diligently across her parchment.

"You know what I heard?" Emileo whispered, leaning forward slightly so Sirius and Lily could both hear and they shot his curious expressions when he paused in a rather dramatic fashion. "One time a Dementor kissed her and it died"

Lily and Sirius both began to snickered, Lily even having to cover her mouth so that she wouldn't laugh out loud. Professor Gilchrist, seeming to have some sort of radar for people expressing forbidden joy in her lesson, snapped her head in their direction and the three of them quickly blanked their expressions, pretending to be fully absorbed in taking notes. She narrowed her eyes at them suspiciously for a moment before she finally turned around to keep writing and Sirius shared a secret smile with his two best friends.

Sirius and Lily quickly packed up their stuff after the lesson, sighing in relief at being able to exit the classroom which had been filled with a stifling silence. As the two of them walked across the grounds, they looked at a crowd that had gathered curiously. The crowd was beside the Whomping Willow, which Narcissa had told him had only been planted this year, and there seemed to be some sort of competition going on to see who could get the closest to the trunk, avoiding getting viciously whacked by the swinging branches.

Sirius' lips quirked in amusement at the antics, while Lily frowned disapprovingly and shook her head. Grabbing Sirius' elbow so that he would continue walking and not get too invested in the scene, Lily took them further across the grounds. Lily began to tell him about a 'truly horrid' prank Potter had pulled on Snape after Potions, apparently bitter about Professor Gilchrist's hate for him.

"…He's still in the hospital wing," Lily finished with sigh, her lips pinched together in annoyance.

"That's unfortunate," his face didn't have any particular expression, but by the look on Lily's face she had gotten to know him well enough by now to know he was finding humour in the situation.

"Sev is my friend, you could at least pretend to be concerned," Lily huffed as they finally came to a stop and sat down beside the lake.

"What do you propose I do about it, Lil?" Sirius asked, raising his brows as he leaned back on his elbows so that he had to look up at her.

"You…you could be friend," she replied hesitantly.

Sirius raised a brow, looking at her as though she had suddenly sprouted another head.

"We _could_ be rare specimens of an exotic breed of dancing African Hippogriffs, but we're not. At least, _I'm_ not" Sirius replied.

"You know they say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Lily said, raising her brows challengingly.

Sirius glanced at her as though considering this before he smirked.

"They've obviously never met me"

They sat in silence for a while. It stuck Sirius how odd it was to be in such a comfortable silence. At Grimmauld Place any silence meant you were being observed and watched and any little movement or change of expression could possibly be held over your head, but with Lily he was completely relaxed. It felt good, which unfortunately only led Sirius to be slightly wary of it. Something this comfortable must come with a catch.

"Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Yes?" Sirius responded, not opening his eyes as he had his head tilted backwards to bask in the sunlight.

"What's a Mudblood?" her voice came.

Sirius' eyes opened at that and his head snapped in Lily's direction. She was sitting beside him, cross legged, and picking at the grass in front of her, her gaze flickering between what he hands were doing and Sirius' face.

"Who called you that?" he demanded, sitting up slightly. When he found out who it was they were going to regret even having the ability to breathe.

"Some Slytherins before dinner," she shrugged as though it was no big deal, but Sirius could see that had been bothering her as she always picked at whatever was in front of her and avoided eye contact when she was upset. "I could tell it was offensive of course, because Dorcas and Emma got very angry, but…I don't know what it means"

"It's a foul word," Sirius said tightly. "It's what people say instead of muggleborn when they believe being a pureblood makes you superior. It means dirty blood. They think you're contaminated because you have muggle parents, that you're somehow _less_," Sirius scoffed bitterly then, he couldn't understand how the rest of his family could think that, how _he_ had once thought that.

"Oh," Lily whispered, looking down again and Sirius sighed when he saw that her emerald eyes were overly bright and her teeth were worrying her bottom lip.

Sirius liked that Lily showed when she was upset, not like his family that hid it behind a cold mask that made you wonder if they even felt such trivial things as emotions at all. Lily didn't pretend for anyone, not for her parents or her sister or for him. when she got mad, she yelled, when sad, she cried, when happy, she smiled, and Sirius loved that about her.

"Hey," Sirius said, in a gentle voice that he didn't even know he could manage, and he reached forward to tip Lily's chin up and make her look at him. "Don't listen to them, okay? Lily Evans, you are beautiful and strong and opinionated, and you have managed so well at not knowing this world. I mean, look how smart you are! In our charms class, Flitwick already used you to set a good example. Don't ever think that you're less, because Lily, you are one of the best of us"

Tears were falling down Lily's cheeks now and she was sniffling, but her lips were tilted upwards and she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Sirius' earnest face. Quite suddenly Lily jerked forward and pulled Sirius into a bone crushing hug.

Sirius froze in shock. he wasn't used to this sort of physical affection. Sure there was that cousin who insisted on kissing both his cheeks, but she was French and it was tradition so it didn't really count, and there was that uncle who always got completely sloshed, and he could tell the boozy arms slung over his shoulder as the elderly wizard passed by, almost knocking Sirius off his feet. His mother never had liked him, but she put up with him because he was pure and rich and that was the only thing that mattered in pureblood society. The point was, this was completely unprecedented and Sirius felt like his insides had turned to ice.

"Thank you," Lily whispered, tightening her grip ever so slightly.

At her words, Sirius seemed to instantly relax as though under a spell and he slowly lifted his arms to wrap around her smaller frame and return the hug.

"You know," Sirius said after a moment of this, not particularly wanting to let the sentimentality continue, "if you really want to thank me you could let me copy your history of magic essay"

Lily chucked and pulled away. She wiped her wet cheeks and was wearing a wide smile that lit up her eyes and made their crinkle in the corners.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "You won't learn if you don't do your homework, you'll have to do it yourself"

"But I slept through most of the lesson," Sirius protested.

"Well, then you'll just have to go to the library," Lily said with a grin, as though she was enjoying how much this was annoying him, and she grabbed her bag and hopped to her feet.

"But – Lily!" he called after her as she began to leave, but he only got a tinkling laugh in response.

Sirius didn't know how long he sat there, a bemused expression on his face as he stared off in the direction Lily had left. He must really like the girl if he allowed her to get one over him like that without retribution, if it was anyone else his Black side would have come out in the form of a scathing comment that could cut as deeply as a dark hex.

Finally, Sirius sighed and made his way to the library as Lily had said. It didn't take long for Sirius to find a book on Goblin rebellions, as that seemed to be what half the history section was about. He situated himself on an empty table, but paused in the act of taking out his ink, quill and parchment when he caught sight of a familiar figure at the table opposite his.

It was Ophelia Ravenwood. Ophelia had black hair that seemed to shine blue in the candlelight, sun kissed skin and bright blue eyes, which stood out even more against the dark lashes that bordered them. Sirius had seen her around the pureblood parties that he had been forced to attend, and around the common room in the past week, but he had never spoken to her. Ophelia seemed to dislike everyone as much as he did, seeming to spend most of her time glaring at Talkalot and Vanderhyde. He wasn't sure if the reason she disliked everyone was because she disagreed with their ideology like he did or if she just had a hatred of people in general like Bellatrix, but Sirius had an interest in her.

After thinking it through for a moment Sirius got up and made his way over to where she was sitting, writing on a piece of parchment. Ophelia jumped when he dropped the heavy History of Magic book on the desk next to her and plopped down on the available seat with an easy grace. Sirius smirked at the not at all pleased look on her face as he got parchment, quill and ink from his bag.

"Hello, I'm-" Sirius started, but Ophelia cut across him.

"Sirius Black, I know," she interrupted with a flat voice and Sirius rose a brow, feeling rather impressed at how she managed to mask the aggravation in her voice, but Sirius could see her true feelings on her face, no one could deceive a Black as they were the masters of deception.

"Has anyone ever told you you're rather rude?" he asked in an innocently curious voice.

"Yes, but I'll be sure to add your name to the list," she replied shortly, not looking up from the essay she was writing.

Sirius opened his book and also began to write on his parchment, using that swooping lettering that he had been taught when he was barely even old enough to speak. He barely got two sentences in before he stopped, tapping his quill thoughtfully and looking at Ophelia, who seemed to try hard not to tense under his intense gaze.

"So…how's your day been?" Sirius asked, leaning back casually in his chair, completely ignoring the rather sharp look her received from Madam Pince, the librarian, for daring to talk.

"Fine," Ophelia said shortly, not pausing in her writing.

Sirius allowed her to write two more sentences in silence before he spoke again.

"Those disappearances in the Daily Prophet are weird, right?" he asked nonchalantly.

Ophelia's grip tightened on her quill and she sighed in annoyance. Finally she looked up at him, settling her brilliantly blue eyes on him angrily, a pink tinge to her tan cheeks. He just smiled at her pleasantly causing her expression to harden all the more.

"Why are you even bothering?" she snapped. "You don't know me"

"I want to though," Sirius replied calmly.

His immunity to her heated glare and sharp answers seemed to only fuel her aggravation. Her jaw tightened and so did her grip on the quill in her hand and Sirius wouldn't be surprised if it were to snap.

"Well, I don't want to know you," she retorted.

Sirius just smiled serenely again, twiddling his own quill deftly between nimble fingers.

"Well, I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy," he said and she furrowed her brows in confusion, not seeming to noticed that he was packing his things back into his bag. "I'm going to be talking to you tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the – well, you get how it works"

Ophelia breathed deeply and released the breath slowly, staring at Sirius.

"Don't stay up too late thinking of ways to get rid of me, I hear it gives you wrinkles," Sirius teased, throwing in a wink for good measure and left the library before Ophelia could do anything more than mouth soundlessly at him.

When Sirius returned to the first year Slytherin dormitory it was to find Avery in an argument with Emileo. It seemed that Emileo's kitten, Crookshanks, who was a bowlegged half Kneazle with a squashed face, had fallen asleep over Avery's bed, leaving it covered in ginger fur. Emileo spoiled the kitten rotten, and was currently cradling it to his chest as Avery shouted at him about the 'foul beast'.

"Don't be like that, Avery," Sirius said casually as he entered the dorm, placing his bag on the side and moving to remove his pyjamas from his trunk. "It just means he likes you. You should be flattered, he's about the only one."

Sirius shared a grin with Emileo and even Mulciber and Nott couldn't help the tiny smiles that appeared on their faces, although Snape seemed to only be able to scowl and roll his eyes at everything that came out of Sirius' mouth. Other than that he ignored Avery's angry exclamation that followed his remark and moved to the bathroom to get ready to bed.


End file.
